Qualifying For The Masters

Unlike the US and British Opens, there no play-in for the Masters. Instead, you have to fit 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 2008 Masters Tournament
11. The first 8 players, including ties, in the 2008 US Open Championship
12. The first 4 players, including ties, in the 2008 British Open Championship
13. The first 4 players, including ties, in the 2008 PGA Championship
14. The 30 leaders on the Final Official PGA Tour Money List for 2008
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 2008 Tour Championship
17. The 50 leaders on the Final Official World Golf Ranking for 2008
18. The 50 leaders on the Official World Golf Ranking published during the week prior to the 2008 Masters

I count 81 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 70 active professionals.

Interestingly, Nick Faldo is a past champion, but is not playing.  A number of older players hung it up years ago, including Bob Ford, Robert Goalby, Palmer and Nicklaus.

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.

The actual list follows:

Players are listed alphabetically. Following the names are the national origin if not from the United States, and numbers indicating under which conditions they were admitted to the tournament, from the list above.

Robert Allenby (Australia) (14, 16)
Stephen Ames (Canada) (14)
Stuart Appleby (Australia) (10, 14, 16)
Briny Baird (16)
Angel Cabrera (Argentina) (2)
Chad Campbell (14, 16)
Michael Campbell (New Zealand) (2)
Paul Casey (England) (10)
K.J. Choi (Korea) (14, 16)
Stewart Cink (10, 14, 15, 16)
Tim Clark (South Africa) (16)
Fred Couples (1)
Ben Crenshaw (1)
Ben Curtis (13, 14, 16)
# Ken Duke (14, 16)
Ernie Els (South Africa) (14, 16)
Steve Flesch (10)
Raymond Floyd (1)
Jim Furyk (14, 16)
Sergio Garcia (Spain) (5, 13, 14, 16)
Mathew Goggin (18)
Retief Goosen (South Africa) (2)
Todd Hamilton (3)
Padraig Harrington (Ireland) (3, 4, 10, 14)
Dudley Hart (14, 16)
# Ryuji Imada (Japan) (14, 15, 16)
Trevor Immelman (South Africa) (1, 14, 16)
# Ryo Ishikawa (Japan) (20)
Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spain) (10, 11)
# Dustin Johnson (15)
Zach Johnson (1)
Robert Karlsson (Sweden) (10, 11)
# Anthony Kim (14, 15, 16)
#* Drew Kittleson (6-B)
Bernhard Langer (Germany) (1)
#* Danny Lee (New Zealand) (6-A)
Justin Leonard (14, 15, 16)
Sandy Lyle (Scotland) (1)
Hunter Mahan (14, 16)
Prayad Marksaeng (Thailand) (18)
Billy Mayfair (16)
Rocco Mediate (11)
# John Merrick (11)
Phil Mickelson (1, 4, 5, 10, 14, 15, 16)
Larry Mize (1)
#* Jack Newman (8)
Greg Norman (Australia) (12)
Geoff Ogilvy (Australia) (2, 14)
Sean O’Hair (10)
Jose Maria Olazabal (Spain) (1)
Mark O’Meara (1)
Louis Oosthuizen (South Africa) (18)
Pat Perez (15)
Kenny Perry (14, 15, 16)
Carl Pettersson (Sweden) (11, 14, 15, 16)
Gary Player (South Africa) (1)
Ian Poulter (England) (12)
Alvaro Quiros (Spain) (18)
Chez Reavie (15)
Andres Romero (Argentina) (10, 16)
#* Reinier Saxton (Holland) (7)
Adam Scott (Australia) (15)
Vijay Singh (Fiji) (1, 4, 10, 14, 15, 16)
Brandt Snedeker (10)
Craig Stadler (1)
Henrik Stenson (Sweden) (12, 13)
Steve Stricker (14, 16)
Kevin Sutherland (14, 16)
D.J. Trahan (11, 14, 16)
Camilo Villegas (Colombia) (13, 14, 15, 16)
Nick Watney (10)
Bubba Watson (16)
Tom Watson (1)
Boo Weekley (14, 15)
Mike Weir (Canada) (1, 14, 16)
Lee Westwood (England) (10, 11)
#* Steve Wilson (9)
Tiger Woods (1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 14)
Ian Woosnam (Wales) (1)
Y.E. Yang (South Korea) (15)
Fuzzy Zoeller (1)

#- Denotes first Masters
*- Denotes Amateur