Jason Kelce Has Become the Villain of the 2026 Masters

Jason Kelce played a big part in ESPN’s coverage of the Masters Par-3 Contest on Wednesday. | Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

The 2026 Masters is underway and on Sunday night one of the golfers in the prestigious field at Augusta National will live out their dream of putting on a green jacket and stamping their name into the history books. They will be celebrated by a jubilant gallery collected around the 18th green while everyone watching at home will likely be happy that they saw another exciting end to the legendary tournament but also a little sad that they’ll now have to wait another year to live the Masters week experience again.

While that will be a fun time, right now many fans have been very much annoyed by one person who has been a part of ESPN’s broadcast—Jason Kelce. The former Philadelphia Eagles star has been with the sports network since retiring from the NFL and he has largely been seen breaking down Monday Night Football matchups.

This week, however, he has been featured a lot at Augusta National, where he served as a caddie for Akshay Bhatia during the annual Par 3 Contest. He even attempted a shot during the contest, much to the delight of ESPN’s social media team who were more than happy to share this moment with the world on various platforms.

Here’s how the Masters audience was greeted by Kelce on Wednesday:

Jason Kelce is rocking a full caddie outfit for the Par 3 Contest 😅 pic.twitter.com/dKOXv8MX01

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 8, 2026

Kelce has become a media star ever since his podcast with his brother, Travis Kelce, started dominating that landscape a few years ago. He can be very funny and open on New Heights, which has made him easy for fans to enjoy and a darling to media executives, who have wanted to get his vibes included in any event that seems like a good fit.

The Masters, however, has not been that. If you’ve been on social media at all in your life you know it’s very hard to find a topic in which everyone agrees upon. But that has happened over the last 24 hours as a majority of fans have voiced their displeasure of having to sit through segments with Kelce that don’t feel genuine. Instead, they feel like his presence and vibes have been forced on to a crowd that just wants to sit back enjoy the traditional beauty that is Masters week.

For instance, we didn’t need to see Kelce eating a sandwich during the Par 3 Contest. But that’s what we got.

Can Chairman Ridley please step in? pic.twitter.com/YyTt1pqDb6

— Golf Bet Caddie (@GolfBetCaddie) April 8, 2026

Kelce lately has become very much like Rob Gronkowski on Fox, and it’s not all his fault. Both guys play these kind of a wild and zany characters in their new TV roles because that’s the brand they’ve put out there in their lives and other business ventures. But that doesn’t mean that’s what large audiences always want or need when they tune into an event that they simply want to sit back and enjoy for a bit. Just ask the folks at Netflix who got roasted for their first MLB Opening Day game that was more of a promotional circus with big-name people (hello, Bert Kreischer) than what fans wanted to see—just a baseball game being played on TV.

This isn’t a knock on Kelce—he seems to be a good dude and a great husband and father. He can be a lot of fun to listen to when he’s on his podcast or “Monday Night Countdown.” It’s more of a knock on the people who are making the decisions to thrust him, and others, into events that they don’t need to be a part of.

Hopefully now with the Masters underway we can put Kelce (and also Kevin Hart and The Miz) in the rearview and just get back to watching one of the best events in all of sports being playing out on one of the most iconic plots of land in all of the world.

At least we hope!

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