Lucas Glover held down the 50th spot in the final world ranking of the year, making him one of 10 players who will be added to the invitation list to play in the Masters.
The field has eight more players than it did at this time a year ago.
The Masters takes the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking at the end of the calendar year, and it will take the top 50 not already invited from the world ranking published a week before the tournament is held April 10-13.
The addition of the 10 players brings the field to 85 players who are eligible and expected to play. There were 77 players who were eligible at this time a year ago, a difference that would 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 prefers that it stays below 100 to give players an experience unlike any other. It last topped 100 players in 1966, when there were 103 players in the field.
The Masters had 89 players this year.
Glover had dipped outside the top 50 in the last few weeks, but the ranking is based on a formula that measures a two-year period with points gradually losing value.
Tom Kim at No. 21 was the highest-ranked player who had not already qualified. The others to get in through the world ranking are Nick Dunlap, Max Greyserman, Rasmus Hojgaard, Jason Day, Corey Conners, Denny McCarthy, Justin Rose and Min Woo Lee.
It was the second straight year McCarthy and Lee earned spots in the Masters through the year-end world ranking. Neither has won on the PGA Tour.
A year ago, four players from the 77 who had qualified by the end of the year earned invitations by winning PGA Tour events in the fall. This year, all eight fall winners were not eligible when they won tournaments.
Five of those fall winners — Matt McCarty, Kevin Yu, Nico Echavarria, Rafael Campos and Maverick McNealy — will be playing the Masters for the first time.
The PGA Tour went back to a calendar schedule for 2024, with several big events (including the Olympics) packed into the schedule. Most of the top players did not enter a PGA Tour event over the last three months of the year.
The Masters will add to the field with the Latin America Amateur Championship winner, any winner of a PGA Tour event that offers full FedEx Cup points, and the top 50 from the world ranking published on March 31. Fourteen tournaments will offer an invitation before the Masters.
Augusta National also could choose to use a special invitation. It offered three last year, including one to Joaquín Niemann of LIV Golf, noting his victory in the Australian Open and another top finish in Australia in his effort to play worldwide.
Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark also received a special invitation because he played primarily on the European tour. The club historically is not that favorable to PGA Tour members because they have more avenues to get in.
Among those who missed out on the top 50 was Nicolai Hojgaard, who shot 76 on the final day at Augusta this year and tied for 16th. Hojgaard, who played in the Ryder Cup in 2023, missed by one shot qualifying for the Masters in the category that takes the top 12 finishers.
His twin brother, Rasmus Hojgaard, will make his debut in April.
Source: espn.com