There are 138 days and counting—and yes, we are most certainly counting—until the first round of the 2024 Masters. Official invitations to the year’s first men’s major championship don’t start hitting mailboxes for another few weeks, but as the holiday season draws near, we got into the merry mood of celebrating who will be among the lucky players teeing it up at Augusta National come April.
To do so, we took the qualifying criteria that Masters chairman Fred Ridley outlined during his 2023 pre-tournament press conference more than seven months ago. At that time, Ridley announced the addition of the NCAA D-I individual champion as an invitee (ironically 2023 winner Fred Biondi turned pro, so won’t be playing), clarified that only those who qualified for the Tour Championship and were eligible to compete the PGA Tour’s final FedEx Cup event also receive Masters invites (the Talor Gooch loophole being closed), and explained that winners of the FedEx Cup Fall Series events would also earn their way into the field. More recently, Ridley made it sound unlikely that the Masters would be adding a special criteria for a handful of LIV Golf members to have direct entry into the event.
So with that, here’s the way things seem to have shaken out so far in terms of players in the field, 81 amateurs and pros that include 17 past champions who are invited but are not expected to compete (listed with an asterisk), meaning an effective field of 64 for the time being. (You’ll see qualifying criteria at the bottom of the article.)
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 remind you, however, that there is one more subset of players who will know by year’s end if they’ve also qualified to play in the event. The last criteria still to be triggered in 2023 for the 2024 major is anybody listed in the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking for the final listing of 2023. So here is a list of those who appear to be mathematical locks for remaining in the top 50 and who don’t have invites just yet:
Sam Burns
Ryan Fox
Will Zalatoris
Denny McCarthey
Harris English
Justin Rose
Eric Cole
J.P. Poston
Min Woo Lee
Adam Hadwin
In addition to these 10, there are two players in the top 50 as of today who would also get invites. However, these two could fall out of the top 50 before year’s end, so they have work to do in the DP World Tour events being held between now and Dec. 31 or must sweat out how the final OWGR list plays out.
Adrian Meronk
Nicolai Hojgaard
And on the opposite end of that spectrum, Robert MacIntyre is ranked No. 56 right now. He could play his way into the top 50, but it would require a top-50 finish at this week’s Australian PGA Championship and a win at next week’s Australian Open, so it’s a tough path to follow.
Mind you all, there is still plenty of time to qualify for the Masters in 2024. Anybody not in the field who wins a PGA Tour full-field event will get in, plus there will be more World Ranking top-50 cut-offs for players who start the year strong. And the winner of the Latin America Amateur Championsihp in January will be the final amateur for 2024.
Masters qualifying criteria
1: Masters champions (lifetime)
2: U.S. Open champions (five years)
3: Open champions (five years)
4: PGA champion (five years)
5: Players champion (three years)
6: Current Olympic gold medalist (one year)
7: Current U.S. Amateur champion and runner-up (one year)
8: Current British Amateur champion (one year)
9: Current Asia-Pacific Amateur champion (one year)
10: Current Latin America Amateur champion (one year)
11: Current U.S. Mid-Amateur champion (one year)
12: Current NCAA Division I Men’s Individual champion (one year)
13: First 12 players, including ties, in the previous year’s Masters
14: First 4 players, including ties, in the previous year’s U.S. Open
15: First 4 players, including ties, in the previous year’s Open Championship
16: First 4 players, including ties, in the previous year’s PGA Championship
17: Individual winners of PGA Tour events that award a full-point FedEx Cup allocation, from previous Masters to current Masters
18: Those qualifying and eligible for the previous year’s season-ending Tour Championship
19: 50 leaders on the final Official World Golf Ranking for the previous calendar year
20: 50 leaders on the Official World Golf Ranking published during the week prior to the current Masters
Image: J.D. Cuban
