The Florida swing on the PGA Tour unofficially marks the start of the road to the Masters, and it’s that time of the year when every point matters.
In this case, it’s world ranking points.
Five tournaments remain before Augusta National takes the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking on March 30, after the Houston Open on the PGA Tour and the Indian Open on the European tour.
Stephan Jaeger currently is the only player to have moved into the top 50 through two months of the season. He has two top-10 finishes, a tie for third in the Sony Open and a tie for sixth last week at the Mexico Open, moving him to No. 42 in the world. Now it’s a matter of hanging on.
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Two of the biggest jumps belong to Daniel Berger and Laurie Canter, who both ended last year outside the top 100 in the world. Berger tied for second in the Phoenix Open and tied for 12th in the Genesis Invitational and now is at No. 52.
He is in the field this week at the Cognizant Classic, his hometown tournament previously called the Honda Classic. He needs a good finish to maintain his No. 9 position in the “Aon Next 10” standings that would get Berger into the Arnold Palmer Invitational the following week at Bay Hill.
Canter, who spent two seasons on LIV Golf, won the Bahrain Championship earlier this month to get in range. The Englishman is at No. 53 and this is a big week for him at the South African Open Championship. A good finish might be enough to crack the top 50, and this week is the cutoff for the top 50 to get into The Players Championship.
Otherwise, Canter, who made his last LIV appearance in Las Vegas just over a year ago, would have European tour events at the Joburg Open, Singapore Classic and Indian Open before the Masters cutoff.
Other players in range starting the Florida swing are Ben Griffin, who moved up eight spots to No. 57 after his tie for fourth in the Mexico Open, and Eric Cole at No. 58.
The Masters field is currently at 91 players expected to compete. There are six tournaments left in which players can get into the Masters by winning. It’s looking more and more likely that Augusta National’s field will stay under 100 players for the 59th consecutive year.
