The Masters Field

Not often mentioned a ton in the media from week to week, but each tour event has it’s qualifications and various ways into the field. None are more publicized as the Masters though. With it’s year-long checklist, and a bunch of ways to tick one of those boxes, the conversation really starts to heat up in March. With guys right around the cut line for OWGR-based entries and Sunday contenders dreaming of winning their way in, it’s like a year-long Selection Sunday.

Here’s a look at the ways the roughly 90 golfers will end up in the field in April and the 20 ways they found their way in, split into six tidy categories:

1. Win Something Big

-You win the Masters, you can come back for life

This is the reason you have some players at the bottom of the betting board with 5000/1 odds because you can literally just keep coming back. Bernhard Langer in his 60s. He qualified so long ago that he was playing under the flag of West Germany when he took home his first green jacket. Some living former champs will opt not to play after they hit a certain age.

-You win the U.S. Open, you’re in for the next five years

-Win the Open Championship, five years as well

-Win the PGA Championship, five years of entry to Augusta.

-Win the Players, get in for 3 years

The 5th major is only worth 60% of the three actual non-Masters majors, but still a way to get in.

-Simply win the Olympic Gold Medal (in men’s golf)

A one-year exemption, so this only comes into play every four years.

2. Win Something Big, Amateur Edition

-Win the U.S. Amateur champion (or finish second, either way)

No tie requirements for second place as the finals are match play.

-Win the British Amateur championship

-Win the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship

-Win the U.S. Mid-Amateur championship

-Win the Latin America Amateur Championship

-Win the NCAA Championship (new!)

3. Almost Win Something Big

-First 12 players, including ties, in the previous year’s Masters

It’d seem that the top of the leaderboard would be full of the world’s best golfers who would be in anyway, but still a way in.

-First 4 players, including ties, in the previous year’s U.S. Open

-First 4 players, including ties, in the previous year’s Open Championship

-First 4 players, including ties, in the previous year’s PGA Championship

4. Just Win Something

-Win an event that awards a full allocation of FedEx Cup points

5. If All Else Fails, At Least Rank High

-Qualify for the year-end Tour Finals (be in the top 30 in FedEx Cup points that week)

-Finish the previous year in the top 50 of the OWGR

-Be in the top 50 of the OWGR the week before the Masters

*Bonus Way In: Be Invited as an International

Apparently, the Masters Committee is allowed to invite anyone they please from the international golf community. Not used extensively but, it has been used. In 2018, Shubhankar Sharma was extended an invite after some strong play on the European Tour left him short of the OWGR qualifications.

Image Credit: Masters.com