Who the heck is Masters contender Matt McCarty?

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AUGUSTA, Ga. — After starting Friday’s second round at Augusta National with a double-bogey followed by a bogey, Matt McCarty’s nice opening round of 1-under on Thursday seemed destined to be the highlight of the 27-years-old’s Masters debut.

That wasn’t to be the case. Beginning at the par-3 sixth hole, McCarty reeled off eight birdies over his next 12 holes to fly up the leaderboard and put himself in contention at the season’s first major.

Which begs the question for many Masters fans: Who the heck is Matt McCarty?

Here are six fast facts about the sudden underdog story of the Masters.

1. The left-handed 27-year-old golfer turned professional in 2021,and is a native of Scottsdale, Ariz., He played collegiate golf at Santa Clara University.
2. McCarty punched his golden ticket to the Masters by winning the PGA Tour’s Black Desert Championship last October in Utah, in just his second PGA Tour start. He won the tournament by three strokes over Stephan Jaeger after opening with a 62.
3. McCarty’s win in Utah might have come out of nowhere for PGA Tour fans, but anyone paying attention to the developmental Korn Ferry Tour likely saw it coming. If you include Korn Ferry victories, the win at the Black Desert Championship was McCarty’s fourth victory in his past 10 professional starts — which is an absolute heater in professional golf.
4. Aside from winning the the Korn Ferry season-long points race and player of the year honours, his three wins there qualified him for one of the coolest awards in golf: The Battlefield Promotion. Any player who wins three times in one season on the Korn Ferry Tour gets to immediately jump to the PGA Tour. McCarty is just the 13th player to earn the three-victory promotion.
5. McCarty’s caddie is Devrath Das, his close friend and former college teammate, and they go by the shared nickname of “Road Dawgs” in homage to Barstool Sports’ Pardon My Take podcast.
6. McCarty is a late-bloomer in the sport. Popular social media account Monday Q Info, run by Ryan French pointed out last October that McCarty didn’t make all-state for golf in high school, didn’t play at a big Division 1 NCAA school and won just one tournament at Santa Clara.