The first round of the 2024 Masters is in 138 days, and we are counting. Not until a few weeks from now will people receive their official invitations to the first men’s major tournament of the year. But as the holidays approach, we got into the spirit of celebrating who will be among the lucky players teeing it up at Augusta National in April.
That’s why we used the factors that Masters chairman Fred Ridley laid out at his pre-tournament press conference more than seven months ago. At that time, Ridley said that the NCAA D-I individual champion would also be invited (ironically, the 2023 winner, Fred Biondi, turned pro, so won’t be playing). He also made it clear that only players who qualified for the Tour Championship and were eligible to compete in the PGA Tour’s final FedEx Cup event would also be invited to the Masters (the Talor Gooch loophole would be closed), and he said that winners of the FedEx Cup Fall Series events would also get into the field. A little while ago, Ridley made it sound like the Masters probably wouldn’t add a special rule that would let a few LIV Golf players directly into the event.
As of now, the following players seem to have made up the field: 81 amateurs and pros, including 17 past champions who are invited but not expected to participate (listed with an asterisk); this makes the field count as 64 for now. (The rules for eligibility are at the end of the piece.)
Going once, twice… The 1949 Masters trophy that Sam Snead won just sold for a crazy amount of money.
A custom unlike any other 50 moments that have shaped Masters history, ranked
Tommy Aaron, 1*
Ludvig Aberg, 17 (RSM Classic)
Keegan Bradley, 17 (Travelers), 18
Jack Burke, Jr., 1*
Angel Cabrera, 1*
Patrick Cantlay, 18
Wyndham Clark, 2, 14, 17 (Wells Fargo, US Open), 18
Corey Conners , 18
Charles Coody, 1*
Fred Couples, 1
Ben Crenshaw, 1*
Cam Davis, 16
Jason Day, 17 (Byron Nelson)
Bryson DeChambeau, 2, 16
Nick Dunlap (a), 7
Nick Faldo, 1*
Tony Finau, 17 (Mexico Open), 18
Matt Fitzpatrick, 2, 13, 17 (RBC Heritage), 18
Tommy Fleetwood , 18
Raymond Floyd, 1*
Rickie Fowler, 17 (Rocket Mortgage), 18
Sergio Garcia, 1
Lucas Glover, 17 (Wyndham, St. Jude), 18
Emiliano Grillo, 17 (Colonial), 18
Stewart Hagestad (a), 11
Brian Harman, 3, 17 (British Open), 18
Tyrrell Hatton, 18
Russell Henley, 13, 18
Lee Hodges, 17 (3M Open)
Max Homa, 18
Viktor Hovland, 13, 16, 17 (Memorial, BMW), 18
Sungjae Im, 18
Trevor Immelman, 1*
Dustin Johnson, 1
Zach Johnson, 1
Tom Kim, 15, 17 (Shriners), 18
Si Woo Kim, 18
Kurt Kitayama, 16
Brooks Koepka, 4, 13, 16, 17
Christo Lamprechet (a), 8
Bernhard Langer, 1
Luke List, 17 (Sanderson)
Sandy Lyle, 1•
Hideki Matsuyama, 1, 3
Rory McIlroy, 13, 17 (Scottish Open), 18
Phil Mickelson, 1, 4, 13
Larry Mize, 1*
Taylor Moore, 18
Collin Morikawa, 3, 4, 13
Jack Nicklaus, 1*
Mark O’Meara, 1*
Jose Maria Olazabal, 1
Gary Player, 1*
Jon Rahm, 1, 2, 15, 17 (Masters), 18
Patrick Reed, 1, 13
Xander Schauffele, 18
Scottie Scheffler, 1, 5, 13, 14, 16, 18
Adam Schenk, 18
Charl Schwartzel, 1
Adam Scott, 1
Neal Shipley (a), 7
Vijay Singh, 1
Cameron Smith, 3, 5, 14
Jordan Spieth, 1, 13, 18
Craig Stadler, 1*
Sepp Straka, 15, 17 (John Deere), 18
Jasper Stubbs (a), 9
Nick Taylor, 17 (RBC Canadian), 18
Sahith Theegala, 13, 17 (Fortinet)
Justin Thomas, 4
Erik van Rooyen, 17 (World Wide Technology)
Camilo Villegas, 17 (Bermuda)
Tom Watson, 1*
Bubba Watson, 1
Mike Weir, 1
Danny Willett, 1
Gary Woodland, 2
Tiger Woods, 1
Ian Woosnam, 1*
Cameron Young, 13
Fuzzy Zoeller, 1*
Let us tell you, though, that there is one more group of players who will find out by the end of the year if they’ve also been chosen to play in the event. Anyone in the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking for the final list of 2023 is the last thing that needs to happen in 2023 for the 2024 major to happen. So, here is a list of people who don’t have invites yet but look like logical locks to stay in the top 50:
Sam Burns
Ryan Fox
Will Zalatoris
Denny McCarthey
Harris English
Justin Rose
Eric Cole
J.P. Poston
Min Woo Lee
Adam Hadwin
On top of these 10, there are two other players in the top 50 right now who would also get invites. However, these two could fall out of the top 50 before the end of the year. That means they need to do well in the DP World Tour events that happen from now until December 31 or wait to see how the final OWGR list turns out.
Theodore Meronk
Hugo Nicolai Hojgaard
The person on the other end of that range is Robert MacIntyre, who is currently ranked No. 56. To get into the top 50, he would have to place in the top 50 at this week’s Australian PGA Championship and win next week’s Australian Open. An impossible path to follow.
Do not worry, everyone. You still have a lot of time to get into the Masters in 2024. If someone not in the field wins a PGA Tour full-field event, they will get in. There will also be more top-50 cut-offs in the World Ranking for players who have a good start to the year. The last amateur for 2024 will be the winner of the Latin America Amateur Championship in January.
