How To Qualify For The Masters

If you—like me—are wondering why you didn’t get an invitation to play in the Masters, it’s because you didn’t meet one of the following criteria:

1. Masters Tournament Champions (Lifetime)
2. US Open Champions (Honorary, non-competing after 5 years)
3. British Open Champions (Honorary, non-competing after 5 years)
4. PGA Champions (Honorary, non-competing after 5 years)
5. Winners of The Players Championship (Three years)
6. Current US Amateur Champion (6-A) (Honorary, non-competing after 1 year) and the runner-up (6-B) to the current US Amateur Champion
7. Current British Amateur Champion (Honorary, non-competing after 1 year)
8. Current US Amateur Public Links Champion
9. Current US Mid-Amateur Champion
10. The first 16 players, including ties, in the 2007 Masters Tournament
11. The first 8 players, including ties, in the 2007 US Open Championship
12. The first 4 players, including ties, in the 2007 British Open Championship
13. The first 4 players, including ties, in the 2007 PGA Championship
14. The 30 leaders on the Final Official PGA Tour Money List for 2007
15. Winners of PGA Tour events that award a full-point allocation for the season-ending Tour Championship, from previous Masters to current Masters
16. Those qualifying for the season-ending 2007 Tour Championship
17. The 50 leaders on the Final Official World Golf Ranking for 2007
18. The 50 leaders on the Official World Golf Ranking published during the week prior to the 2008 Masters

All told, there will be 93 players in this year’s Masters. That’s a small field. But from a competitive standpoint, it’s even smaller. The (virtually) lifetime exemption for past Champions means that there are a dozen or so guys in the field who realistically have no chance of contending. Among them: Ben Crenshaw, Raymond Floyd, Sandy Lyle. Bernhard Langer, Larry Mize, Mark O’Meara, Gary Player, Craig Stadler, Tom Watson, Ian Woosnam, and Fuzzy Zoeller. Then throw in the four amateurs, and you’ve really got a field that’s more like 85 active professionals.

I have no chance of ever playing in the tournament. My only hope of playing Augusta is that one of the members will feel sorry for The GolfBlogger and invite him to a round.