Augusta National Golf Club and R&A announced on Tuesday that the winners of the six national Opens – the Scottish Open, the Spanish Open, the Japan Open, the Hong Kong Open, the Australian Open and the South African Open – will be invited to the Masters and the Open Championship starting next year.
Augusta National Golf Club also announced that winners of the seven FedEx Fall Championships of the PGA Tour will no longer be invited to the Masters.
The governing body said the new qualification changes for the winners of the six nations will “ensure a strong international track from several professional tours, two major champions recognizing the global strength of elite professional golf.”
“The Masters Championship has long recognized the importance of having international representation in its invitation,” said Fred Ridley, Augusta National Golf Club and Masters President, in a statement. “We share a common commitment to global gaming with R&A and are proud to work together.
“Today’s announcement strengthens our organization’s collective vision for the world’s top talents who have won the historic national open championship. We hope this formal recognition has a bright revelation for these players and their events at the Masters and Open that will begin next year.”
The winner of the Scottish Open has been invited to the Masters as it is a jointly approved event between the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, all allocated 500 points, which is a match that qualifies for the Tour Championship.
Augusta National Golf Club has changed one of its qualification categories to “Individual Winner of the PGA Tour, awarding individual champions with full-point allocations for the season-end Tour champions, meaning that if there is no other, otherwise ineligible, the champions of seven events in the fall schedule of the PGA Tour will no longer be invited to the first major champion of the season.
The Masters have four professional minimal areas and prefer it to keep it under 100 players to enhance their experience.
It was the first major change in the Masters category since 2013, when Augusta National eliminated the top 30 on the PGA Tour list and reduced the top champion category to 16 in the previous version of Masters.
The Autumn Championships are Procore champions, Sanderson Farm Championships, Baycurrent Classic, Utah Bank Championships, world-wide technical champions, Butterfield Bermuda Championships and RSM Classic, which are usually weaker than the field of the FedEx Cup season.
International golfers have been able to qualify for the Open through the R&A Open Qualifying Series, a series consisting of 15 tournaments in 13 countries around the world.
“We share our goal with the Augusta National to provide players with open and master’s status in the Open and master’s degree and do so to help showcase and strengthen the sport in these regions,” R&A CEO Mark Darbon said in a statement. “This provides an excellent opportunity for players around the world to qualify and we firmly believe this will continue to enrich the quality of the field in both major tournaments.”
The openings identified by R&A and Augusta National are the Asian Tour (Hong Kong), Japan Golf Tour, Sunshine Tour (South Africa), Oceania PGA Tour and European Tour (Scotland and Spain).
Although not the goal, the move also creates opportunities for players from Saudi-backed Liv Golf. R&A has created a waiver category for leading LIV players this year. Augusta National is reluctant to use its special invitations if it feels like it should invite someone. Joaquín Niemann has received two invitations.
But LIV players, although suspended by the PGA Tour, can enter these countries to chase the attractions to the Open and Masters. Niemann’s invitation to the Masters in 2024 is largely due to his Australian open victory.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
