An spot at the Masters is the most coveted invite in golf and they don't just hand them out at Augusta, which has a significantly smaller field compared to the other three majors. Here's how the 2015 field was built.
The green jackets of Augusta National can rest easy knowing their field for the Masters will stay under 100 players, a streak that's lasted since 1963 and was narrowly close to ending over these final few weeks of qualifying. Last Sunday night, we stood at 99 qualified players with one more shot, a win at the Shell Houston Open, at someone pushing it to triple digits.
In the intervening days, an injured Tim Clark backed out and we got a Houston Open winner who was already qualified in J.B. Holmes. He needed extra holes to beat out Jordan Spieth and Johnson Wagner, who came inches from solidifying his status on the Tour and earning a last minute invite to the Masters. Instead, Holmes, whose status for the Masters was all set, blocked that chance with the playoff win.
So we roll to Augusta with 98 players -- a mix of former champions, amateurs, Americans, and internationals -- in the field. This is a breakdown of how every qualified player earned an exemption. Augusta National sets out 19 ways to get in the field. They are:
| Qualification for a Masters invite (19 methods) |
| Masters Tournament Champions (Lifetime) |
| US Open Champions (Honorary, non-competing after 5 years) |
| British Open Champions (Honorary, non-competing after 5 years) |
| PGA Champions (Honorary, non-competing after 5 years) |
| Winners of The Players Championship (Three years) |
| Current US Amateur Champion and U.S. Amateur runner-up |
| Current British Amateur Champion |
| Current Asia-Pacific Amateur Champion |
| Current Latin America Amateur Champion |
| Current US Amateur Public Links Champion |
| Current US Mid-Amateur Champion |
| The first 12 players (and ties) in the previous year's Masters |
| The first 4 players (and ties) in the previous year's US Open Championship |
| The first 4 players (and ties) in the previous year's British Open Championship |
| The first 4 players (and ties) in the previous year's PGA Championship |
| Winners of PGA Tour events (full FedExCup allotment only) from previous Masters to current Masters |
| Those qualifying for the previous year's season-ending Tour Championship |
| Top 50 in final Official World Golf Ranking for the previous calendar year |
| Top 50 in Official World Golf Ranking published during the week before the Masters |
Unlike the other three majors, the folks at Augusta National like to keep things small and exclusive. They're beholden to all manner of traditions and one of those is the makeup of the field. While the U.S. Open, British Open, and PGA all usually have 150 or more players in their field, the Masters will never come close to that. The 98 this year is on the larger side.
The following is a breakdown of how all 98 earned their first exemption, in the order listed above by the Masters. There are obviously many players who could check off multiple boxes. Rory McIlroy fulfills eight of the methods of qualifying. But instead of duplicating names throughout, this is each according to the first way they got into the field.
Past Masters Champions
The other majors honor their former winners with special privileges and exemptions, but nothing compares to the lifetime perks a Masters winner earns. It's the best week of the year for many of those former winners of an advanced age.
In the past decade or so, the tournament started gently nudging some of the seniors who were holding up the pace of play and carding preposterously high scores to sit out and show up in more of a ceremonial role. Some chose not to embarrass themselves and are happy to hang it up competitively. There are 12 former winners who won't tee it up at Augusta. They are:
| Past Champions Not Playing | |
| Tommy Aaron | Bob Goalby |
| Jack Burke Jr. | Jack Nicklaus |
| Charles Coody | Arnold Palmer |
| Nick Faldo | Gary Player |
| Raymond Floyd | Craig Stadler |
| Doug Ford | Fuzzy Zoeller |
Craig Stadler was the latest former winner to give up playing after last year, and Ben Crenshaw is the one this year making it his last Masters. Here are the 19 green jacketed fellows still cashing in that lifetime invite and set to play in the 2015 Masters.
| Past Masters Champions (lifetime exemption) |
| Angel Cabrera (2009) |
| Fred Couples (1992) |
| Ben Crenshaw (1984, 1995) |
| Trevor Immelman (2008) |
| Zach Johnson (2007) |
| Bernhard Langer (1985, 1993) |
| Sandy Lyle (1988) |
| Phil Mickelson (2004, 2006, 2010) |
| Larry Mize (1987) |
| Mark O'Meara (1998) |
| Jose Maria Olazabal (1994, 1999) |
| Charl Schwartzel (2011) |
| Adam Scott (2013) |
| Vijay Singh (2000) |
| Bubba Watson (2012, 2014) |
| Tom Watson (1977, 1981) |
| Mike Weir (2003) |
| Tiger Woods (1997, 2001, 2002, 2005) |
| Ian Woosnam (1991) |
While that's a distinguished group, the two most recent winners, Bubba and Adam Scott, are by far the best opportunities for a repeat winner.
Winners of other majors from the last five years
Those other, plebeian major championships do have some privileges. If you have won a U.S. Open, British Open, or PGA Championship in the last five years, you automatically get an invite to Augusta. This is the accepted exemption at the other majors as well -- a five-year invite all around if you win one. McIlroy could fall under any one of these three exemptions, but the U.S. Open is the first one officially listed by the Masters.
| U.S. Open Winners (Last 5 Years) |
| Martin Kaymer |
| Graeme McDowell |
| Rory McIlroy |
| Justin Rose |
| Webb Simpson |
| Open Championship Winners (Last 5 Years) |
| Darren Clarke |
| Ernie Els |
| Louis Oosthuizen |
| PGA Championship Winners (Last 5 Years) |
| Keegan Bradley |
| Jason Dufner |
Ernie Els and Darren Clarke are the two names from the above list that are relying solely on this five-year exemption. One would think, given the way Clarke has played, his semi-retired status, and his duties as new Ryder Cup captain, that this will continue to be his only exemption and 2016 may be his final year at Augusta.
The Players Champion from last three years
The PGA Tour aggressively promotes The Players as the game's "fifth major." It has the largest purse and usually the deepest field of the year. It is certainly a prestigious event, but it ain't getting that five-year exemption like the other majors. Martin Kaymer and Tiger Woods already hold one of the above exemptions, so it's Matt Kuchar listed solo here.
| Players Championship Winners (Last 3 Years) |
| Matt Kuchar |
Kuchar is one of the most consistent players in the world -- constantly posting top 10s and cashing big checks. He's exempt five other ways besides this one but the Players title still remains the biggest win of his career.
Amateurs
No major honors the "amateur ideal" more than the Masters. It's an homage to their founder and hero, Bobby Jones, the most accomplished amateur in the history of the game (did you know he was a lawyer by trade?!). The two Opens reserve spots for amateurs, but they're not treated and held up in quite the same way they are at Augusta.
To Augusta National's credit, they have done an excellent job of trying to grow the game in new parts of the world with recently created amateur titles in Asia and Latin America. In the past, the Asia Pacific Amateur has delivered Hideki Matsuyama, now one of the top young studs on Tour, and the wonderful 14-year-old Tianlang Guan. This is the first year of the Latin America Amateur Championship, and Matias Dominguez from Chile (and currently at Texas Tech) will be the first to play with that exemption.
| 2014 U.S. Amateur Champ/Runner-up |
| Gunn Yang |
| Corey Conners |
| British Amateur Champ |
| Bradley Neil |
| Asia Pacific Amateur Champ |
| Antonio Murdaca |
| Latin America Amateur Champ |
| Matias Dominguez |
| U.S. Amateur Pub Links Champ |
| Byron Meth |
| U.S. Mid-Amateur Champ |
| Scott Harvey |
While Bobby Jones may have been a force as an amateur, the game has obviously changed since the nascent days of the Masters. Now the goal for all these Ams is to make the cut and play all four days. If they do, of course, they won't be able to collect any of their prize money.
Top 12 from the 2014 Masters leaderboard
It still pays to play well and not win at the Masters. This exemption was recently cut down to only the top 12 and ties and two players, Jonas Blixt and Kevin Stadler, relied on it as their only method for getting in the field.
| Top 12 (including ties) from 2014 Masters |
| Thomas Bjorn |
| Jonas Blixt |
| Rickie Fowler |
| Miguel Angel Jimenez |
| John Senden |
| Jordan Spieth |
| Kevin Stadler |
| Jimmy Walker |
| Lee Westwood |
Even including Stadler and Blixt, this is a pretty world-class group and most could make a run at that top 10 to top 15 again this year.
PGA Tour winners from last 12 months
The PGA Tour is the toughest, deepest golf circuit in the world and earning a win provides all sorts of perks and exemptions across the globe. For many, the biggest is that invite to Augusta. A Tour win often earns an invite for a player who hasn't been to Augusta in a few years, or maybe never before, like first timers James Hahn, Brian Harman, Seung Yul-Noh and Robert Streb this year.
| Winners of PGA Tour events between 2014 Masters to 2015 Masters |
| Sang-Moon Bae |
| Ben Crane |
| Matt Every |
| Bill Haas |
| James Hahn |
| Brian Harman |
| Padraig Harrington |
| Charley Hoffman |
| J.B. Holmes |
| Billy Horschel |
| Chris Kirk |
| Hunter Mahan |
| Ben Martin |
| Hideki Matsuyama |
| Ryan Moore |
| Seung-Yul Noh |
| Patrick Reed |
| Brandt Snedeker |
| Robert Streb |
| Kevin Streelman |
| Brendon Todd |
| Camilo Villegas |
Many of these guys are relatively unknown to the casual fans tuning in to the biggest golf tournament of the year. But few are flukey winners and most have been consistently on the first page of leaderboards over the past 12 months.
Clark, the diminutive South African, withdrew last week, citing a nagging elbow injury.
FedExCup TOUR Championship qualifiers
The most exclusive field of the entire PGA Tour schedule is the FedExCup finale. Only 125 players get into the playoffs, and after three events, just 30 make it to the TOUR Championship in Atlanta. Just making that field has triggered several exemptions, most notably to the majors.
| Final 30 Qualifiers for the FedExCup's TOUR Championship |
| Russell Henley |
| Morgan Hoffmann |
| Kevin Na |
| Geoff Ogilvy |
| Ryan Palmer |
| Gary Woodland |
Henley, Hoffmann, and Ogilvy relied solely on this exemption to get in the field this year. Ogilvy. whose game had been lost in recent years, barely made the playoffs altogether, and then went on a run to get to Atlanta. It was enough to get him hist first Masters start since 2012.
OWGR Top 50 at end of 2014
The world rankings system is deeply flawed. But it's all the game has right now, and the top 50 cutoff is a big one for majors qualification.
| Top 50 in final Official World Golf Rankings at end of 2014 |
| Luke Donald |
| Jamie Donaldson |
| Victor Dubuisson |
| Stephen Gallacher |
| Mikko Ilonen |
| Thongchai Jaidee |
| Marc Leishman |
| Shane Lowry |
| Joost Luiten |
| Ian Poulter |
| Steve Stricker |
| Danny Willett |
Between the PGA Tour winners exemption and the Tour Championship exemption above, most of the qualifiers in this group will be international. Steve Stricker is the only player relying on this method from the USA.
Stricker, now age 48, has not played since December and will jet from the Final Four, where he watched his Wisconsin Badgers, down to Augusta. Stricker has been semi-retired for a couple years now, playing only the biggest events. But this extended hiatus through the first quarter of 2015 led to a tumble down to 75th in the world. But he was there inside the top 50 at the end of last year, so he's all good for Augusta.
OWGR Top 50 the week before Masters
Once the calendar flipped to 2015, the two main ways to earn late entry were by either winning a PGA Tour event or getting hot and playing your way inside the top 50 in the world. The top 50 fluctuated a bit during the first three months of the year, but at the final deadline the week before the Masters, four players had shifted inside that line of demarcation to earn that final invite.
| Top 50 in Official World Golf Rankings week before 2015 Masters |
| Paul Casey |
| Branden Grace |
| Anirban Lahiri |
| Bernd Wiesberger |
Lahiri is the biggest mover of this group. He's only had his Euro Tour card for a few months, but picked up a win at the Malaysian Open and Indian Open to rocket up the world rankings (and perhaps expose some of the flawed methods for how points are distributed). He's now the third Indian to play the Masters. Casey was the closest to missing the field, sweating out that final weekend teetering on the 50th cutoff line.
★★★
So there's your field. We spent much of the last week wondering if the biggest name in the game would miss the season's first major for a second straight year. But Tiger Woods' Friday announcement that he was good to go obviously boosted a field already loaded with talent and storylines. Whether Tiger has much of a chance is a different matter. Fortunately for him, the four-time winner will never have to worry about grinding to earn an exemption.
While Clark has already dropped out, Mike Weir and Kevin Stadler, two others who have been injured recently, have said they intend to play. Even if they do bail, this is Augusta and there are no alternates. So these are your 98 players and no one new will be joining this week. Let's go.
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