Lucas Glover held down the fiftieth spot within the last world rating of the yr, making him certainly one of 9 gamers who might be added to the invitation checklist to play within the Masters.
The sphere has eight extra gamers than it did right now a yr in the past.
The Masters takes the highest 50 within the Official World Golf Rating on the finish of the calendar yr, and it’ll take the highest 50 not already invited from the world rating revealed per week earlier than the match is held April 10-13.
The addition of the 9 gamers brings the sphere to 85 gamers who’re eligible and anticipated to play. There have been 77 gamers who had been eligible right now a yr in the past, a distinction that may level to weaker fields within the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Fall.
The Masters has the smallest subject of the 4 majors, and Augusta Nationwide prefers that it stays beneath 100 to present gamers an expertise not like every other. It final topped 100 gamers in 1966, when there have been 103 gamers within the subject.
The Masters had 89 gamers this yr.
Glover had dipped outdoors the highest 50 in the previous couple of weeks, however the rating is predicated on a formulation that measures a two-year interval with factors progressively dropping worth.
Tom Kim at No. 21 was the highest-ranked participant who had not already certified. The others to get in by means of the world rating are Nick Dunlap, Max Greyserman, Rasmus Hojgaard, Jason Day, Corey Conners, Denny McCarthy and Min Woo Lee.
It was the second straight yr McCarthy and Lee earned spots within the Masters by means of the year-end world rating. Neither has received on the PGA Tour.
A yr in the past, 4 gamers from the 77 who had certified by the top of the yr earned invites by profitable PGA Tour occasions within the fall. This yr, all eight fall winners weren’t eligible once they received tournaments.
5 of these fall winners — McCarty, Yu, Echavarria, Campos and McNealy — might be enjoying the Masters for the primary time.
The PGA Tour went again to a calendar schedule for 2024, with a number of massive occasions (together with the Olympics) packed into the schedule. A lot of the prime gamers didn’t enter a PGA Tour occasion during the last three months of the yr.
The Masters will add to the sphere with the Latin America Newbie Championship winner, any winner of a PGA Tour occasion that gives full FedEx Cup factors, and the highest 50 from the world rating revealed on March 31. Fourteen tournaments will present a Masters invitation.
Augusta Nationwide additionally might select to make use of a particular invitation. It supplied three final yr, together with one to Joaquín Niemann of LIV Golf, noting his victory within the Australian Open and one other prime end in Australia in his effort to play worldwide.
Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark additionally acquired a particular invitation as a result of he performed totally on the European tour. The membership traditionally will not be that favorable to PGA Tour members as a result of they’ve extra avenues to get in.
Amongst those that missed out on the highest 50 was Nicolai Hojgaard, who shot 76 on the ultimate day at Augusta this yr and tied for sixteenth. Hojgaard, who performed within the Ryder Cup in 2023, missed by one shot qualifying for the Masters within the class that takes the highest 12 finishers.
His twin brother, Rasmus Hojgaard, will make his debut in April.
