Lucas Glover was ranked 50th in the final world rankings for the year, making him one of 10 players to be added to the invitation list to play in the Masters.
The field has eight more players than at this time last year.
The Masters takes the top 50 from the Official World Golf Ranking at the end of the calendar year, and will take the top 50 not already invited to the world rankings published the week before the tournament is held on April 10-13.
The addition of 10 players brings the field to 85 players eligible and expected to play. There were 77 players who qualified for this last year, a difference that could point to weaker fields in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Fall.
The Masters has the smallest field of the four majors, and Augusta National chooses to stay under 100 to give players an experience unlike any other. The last record for 100 players was in 1966, when there were 103 players on the field.
The Masters had 89 players this year.
Glover has dipped outside the top 50 in recent weeks, but the ranking is based on a formula that measures a two-year period by points that gradually lose value.
Tom Kim at No. 21 was the highest-ranked player yet to qualify. Others who will enter the world class are Nick Dunlap, Max Greyserman, Rasmus Højgaard, Jason Day, Corey Conners, Denny McCarthy, Justin Rose and Min Woo Lee.
It was the second year in a row that McCarthy and Lee earned spots at the Masters with the year-end world rankings. Neither has won on the PGA Tour.
Last year, four of the 77 finalists earned invitations by winning PGA Tour events in the fall. This year, all eight fall winners were ineligible when they won tournaments.
Five of the fall finalists — Matt McCarty, Kevin Yu, Nico Echavarria, Rafael Campos and Maverick McNealy — will be playing the Masters for the first time.
The PGA Tour is back on the calendar for 2024, with several major events packed, including the Olympics. Most of the top players did not compete in a PGA Tour event in the last three months of the year.
The Masters will expand the field with the winner of the Latin American Amateur Championship, any winner of the PGA Tour event that gives the FedEx Cup total points, and the top 50 points in the world rankings published on March 31. Fourteen tournaments will give an invitation before the -Masters.
Augusta National may also choose to use a special invitation. It handed out three last year, including one to LIV Golf’s Joaquín Niemann, marking his Australian Open victory and the top finish in Australia in his bid to play around the world.
Thorbjørn Olesen from Denmark also received a special invitation because he was playing mainly on the European tour. The club has historically been less favorable to PGA Tour members because they have more entry options.
Among those missing the top 50 was Nicolai Højgaard, who shot 76 on the final day at Augusta this year and tied for 16th. Højgaard, who played in the Ryder Cup in 2023, missed qualifying for the Masters by one shot in the top 12 division.
His twin, Rasmus Højgaard, will debut in April.
Source link
