By DOUG FERGUSON AP Golf Writer
The Masters is making a rare change to its qualifying criteria by eliminating invitations to PGA Tour winners in the fall and joining the R&A in recognizing winners of six national opens on every main tour in the world.
Augusta National and the R&A announced plans Tuesday to align aspects of their criteria to create a path to the Masters and British Open for winners or top finishers in the South African Open, Australian Open, Japan Open, Spanish Open, Hong Kong Open and Scottish Open.
The Opens in South Africa and Australian are among the five oldest in golf.
This builds on the “Open Qualifying Series” the R&A created in 2013 to attract players from every continent where golf is played. The difference is that Augusta National invites only the winner, while the British Open often provide three or four spots for the leading finishers.
“The Masters Tournament has long recognized the significance of having international representation among its invitees,” Chairman Fred Ridley said. “We, along with The R&A, have a shared commitment to the global game and are proud to work together. Today’s announcement strengthens our organizations’ collective vision of rewarding top talent around the world who rise to the top of historic national open championships.”
The Masters has the smallest field of the four majors and prefers it stay under 100 players to enhance their experience.
Adding as many as six spots from the national opens meant losing the invitations to the PGA Tour’s weaker fall events. Last year, all eight winners in the fall were not already eligible and four of them were outside the top 100 in the world ranking.
The previous year, three of the fall winners were outside the top 150 in the world. Those tournaments fall after the FedEx Cup season and typically are players who are trying to keep their tour cards.
Ridley had said in April at the Masters that the club looks at its qualifications each year. He said international events “will be part of our examination.”
The Masters had made a few tweaks over the years, such as adding the NCAA champion to the field. But this is the first significant change since 2013 when it did away with the top 30 from the PGA Tour money list and reduced from the top 16 to the top 12 leading finishers in the previous Masters.
Except for the Scottish Open in July, which is sanctioned by the PGA Tour and European tour, the other national opens Augusta National and the R&A identified are from October through February.
The R&A will release in September its Open Qualifying Series for the 2026 Open at Royal Birkdale, but the six national opens will be part of them. This year’s Open included 24 players who earned spots through 11 events as part of the Open Qualifying Series. That did not include the Hong Kong Open, Spanish Open or Japan Open, though the Japan Open winner was exempt through a different category.
“We’re delighted to have the strength of the Masters supporting the national opens,” said Johnnie Cole-Hamilton, championships director of the R&A. “It sends a really powerful message to the globe about these pathways to our championships, and it shines a light on these tours.”
The opens identified by the R&A and Augusta National are part of the Asian Tour (Hong Kong), Japan Golf Tour, Sunshine Tour, PGA Tour of Australian and European tour.
Though not the objective, it also creates opportunity for players from Saudi-backed LIV Golf. The R&A created an exemption category for the leading LIV player this year. Augusta National did not, preferring to use its special invitation if it feels someone should be invited. Joaquin Niemann has received that invitation twice.
But LIV players, while suspended by the PGA Tour, can enter these national opens to chase spots to the Open and Masters. Niemann’s invitation to the Masters in 2024 was largely due to his Australian Open victory.
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