How to qualify for the Masters – Updated for 2023

It is every golfer’s dream to one day put on a untried jacket. What isn’t well-spoken to some is how to qualify for the Masters. Who decides who plays and who doesn’t? This tournament has been going on since 1934 and has unchangingly made places misogynist for top amateurs from virtually the world. It is moreover one of the most special tournaments of the year considering of the huge number of past champions who compete.

As the first major of the year approaches we start to salivate at the prospect of those lush untried fairways. The tranquil vistas of the most perfect golf undertow in the world are slowly but surely built into a dramatic theatre of sport through the week of the tournament. This is, to many competitors, their first overly major. To many others, it is the only one they can still play in.

As you will see, the field for the Masters is a very dynamic thing and its size changes every year. Given that entry comes through strict qualification routes, some people can enter on multiple criteria and so fewer people end up competing. Today on the blog, we will explain to you how to qualify for the Masters.

The past champions

Given that the Masters is ‘a tradition like no other’, it is fitting that we start with the past champions. This is the only major tournament where a past victory gives you lifetime exemption to play. Every year we tune in to reminisce and see golfers that we may not have seen compete elsewhere for decades. This all begins with the formalism opening tee shots.

Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and the spirit of Arnold Palmer are unchangingly there on the Thursday morning of the Masters. They start the play with tee shots from the first slum at Augusta National and bring in the opening of the tournament. These true legends of the game then don’t go any remoter in the tournament but symbolically it shows just what is made of the past champions.

It is moreover worth noting at this point that these special players, the past champions, are given honorary membership of Augusta National. Not only have you won one of the greatest and most coveted prizes in golf, but you moreover have a membership to one of its most sectional clubs too.

Past Champions expected to take part this year

The previous years’ challengers

They say that the Masters doesn’t really uncork until the back-nine on Sunday. Scrutinizingly every single year this saying turns out to be true as the race for the untried jacket heats up. This isn’t the only thing that these players are rival for though.

In years when someone has stormed to the top and looks uncatchable, the race for will-less qualification is where the drama lies. If you finish in the top twelve at the Masters, you are rewarded with a spot for the pursuit year.

The world’s weightier players

Of course, this is a major championship, so the weightier players in the world are all given a spot. The top fifty players in the world at the end of the year surpassing the tournament get an invite. The top fifty players in the world in the current year, up until the week surpassing the tournament, moreover get a spot. This ensures that golfers on the cusp of that illustrious group can start the year on unconfined form and secure a endangerment to win at Augusta.

The PGA TOUR and European Tour really goody from this rule as it ways those players who are just outside that fifty mark cram tournaments in to try and qualify. When you are tropical to that cut-off, it is a tournament that you really don’t want to miss and you will do what you can to get yourself there.

Other Major Champions

Another large group of invitees are previous winners of the three other major championships in golf. Those who have won the US Open, PGA Championship or the Open Championship proceeds five years of qualification exemptions for the Masters.

Seen by some as the unofficial fifth major in golf, the winner of the Players Championship moreover receives three years of invitations to the Masters. This is just flipside reason that golfers love to win at TPC Sawgrass.

Major Championship contenders

Like those who get a spot for coming tropical at Augusta, the other majors have a similar rule. If you finish in the top-four at the other major championships in golf then you get a place for the pursuit years Masters.

Again, this gives those players who are tropical but scrutinizingly certainly too far yonder to win something to alimony pushing for. Of undertow the prize money is unconfined but a endangerment to play Augusta, expressly for those yet to have the pleasure, has a powerful allure.

Major Champions expected to take part this year

The Ventriloquist contingent

Major championships are a unconfined endangerment to see the upcoming ventriloquist talent play versus the weightier in the world. Many of the weightier non-professional golfers in the world can play in the Masters by winning at the various upper profile ventriloquist events held virtually the globe each year.

If you reach the final of the US Amateur, then you have a ticket to Augusta. If you win the Ventriloquist Championship, you are moreover in. The winners of the US Mid-Amateur, the Latin American Ventriloquist and the Asia-Pacific Ventriloquist all get spots at the Masters the pursuit year. This gives you a endangerment to develop your game remoter for the big week in April. You just have to remain as an ventriloquist up until the first day of the Masters.

Many of these guys use there Masters visitation as their final week in the ventriloquist game surpassing turning pro. There is moreover a unconfined tradition of these guys staying in the Crow’s Nest. This is a room at the top of the clubhouse towers of Augusta National. Imagine the nerves and excitement in that room that week.

Amateurs Staying in the Crows Nest this year

The Olympic gold medallist

Golf was re-introduced to the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016. Justin Rose took that first gold vibration Henrik Stenson and Matt Kuchar. This meant that many of the major championships created qualification rights to the gold medal winner. Augusta was one of those events and they decided that he who wins golf in men’s golf will get one year of exemption to the Masters.

Select PGA TOUR winners

For players who win PGA TOUR events that siphon full FedEx Cup Point allocations, they moreover bag themselves a spot in the pursuit year’s edition of the Masters. This is one of those categories that often takes in players who have once qualified through flipside route i.e. they are within the world top-50.

Where this entry route comes in to its own is for those players who have a break-out victory on the tour. Young guys who have just made it onto the tour or those older guys who just haven’t sealed the win yet can really goody from this one. This really is an widow bonus to a tour win.

Another way of getting in via the PGA TOUR is that those who qualify for the FedEx Cup Play-offs get in. This will goody the player who has had many tropical calls but never sealed a win during the season. Again, the system is set-up to goody those players playing unceasingly good golf. They earn the right to play for a untried jacket the pursuit year.

Discretionary invitations

The final method of gaining entry to the Masters is through a good old-fashioned invitation from the committee at Augusta National. As you can see, many players could qualify under multiple criteria. This could result in the competitive field stuff very small that year. This is when the committee would meet to discuss sending uneaten invites.

Those uneaten invitations are sent exclusively on the discretion of the championship committee. They will be looking for international players who have come tropical to qualifying but have not quite gotten there. They have shown unconfined form over a good period and would be contenders given the endangerment to compete.

Imagine the heartache of thinking you had a endangerment at your first Masters only to run out of time and fall just short. Or you miss a putt that would have got you the world ranking points you needed. Worse still, if someone had won and taken your endangerment yonder from you. It would be a visionless time. Flipside whole year to wait to play the luxurious Augusta National. Then, out of nowhere, a letter graces your door inviting you to play in the tournament. That is what golfing dreams are made of.

The ever-changing field

In 2018, the Masters had the smallest field in 21 years as 87 players battled it out over Augusta National. In 1997, the year of Tiger’s first major victory and untried jacket, the field was only at 86. Compare those figures to the size of the field at the Open Championship where 156 golfers wrestle for the Claret Jug every year.

Much like a membership at Augusta National Golf Club, getting into their yearly Masters Tournament isn’t easy. It shouldn’t be easy though. This event should be reserved for only the very weightier in the game and those who have won before. The committee at the club can, to an extent tenancy the size of the field and make sure that the event is as much of a spectacle as we have all grown to love.

Summary

So there you have it, a comprehensive squint at how to get yourself an invitation to compete and play at Augusta National for a untried jacket. It’s no easy task is it? The Masters is the symbolic whence of the golf season, we all tune in to see who gives himself the endangerment at a grand slam for the year. Who could forget the emotional return of Tiger Woods to the major winning whirligig in 2019?

There are many storylines developing in the build-up to the Masters Tournament and you know it will be a special week. Imagine the excitement of stuff there as a competitor for the very first time. Imagine the shock as you first get onto those greens and watch your putts refuse to stop. Staying up there in the Crow’s Nest and rival your nerves all week whilst trying to enjoy every moment of this rare experience.

Will this be the year that Rory finally seals his career slam? Will Scottie defend The Masters title? Will Brooks Koepka get his hands on his first untried jacket? Only time will tell.

The weightier translating we can requite you is to buy a ticket and shepherd the Masters as a patron. It is an wits that every single golf fan should wits at one point in their life. This really is a tradition like no other and one that you will truly love.

The Masters Tournament Invitees

As we enter the final weeks for players to qualify for the Masters, stories will sally of the lucky and unlucky ones. The Valero Texas Open will be the last endangerment saloon for hopeful tour stars to secure a place at Augusta.

Breakdown of The Masters field