Re-Thinking The Year-End World Top 50 Masters Invite
It seems like inside-the-Beltway stuff but the Masters exempting the Official World Golf Ranking's top 50 has many ramifications, most of them negative.
Doug Ferguson makes a case for the Masters taking the top 50 closer to the tournament.
The top 50 at the end of the preceding year received invitations, along with the top 50 a month before the Masters. Starting in 2003, the final cutoff was moved to one week before the Masters.
The club has never said why it takes the top 50 at the end of a calendar year. Perhaps it's so players can make travel arrangements, or perhaps it was to give an advantage to overseas players, who compete deep into the year. PGA Tour members have more avenues to qualify throughout the season.
But imagine what would happen if there was only one cutoff for the top 50 in the world, and it followed the Florida swing.
Matteo Manassero (51), Branden Grace (57), David Lynn (65) and Peter Hanson (70) all were in the top 50 in December. They would have spent the Florida swing trying to stay in the top 50 or move back in. That change might be something for Augusta National to consider if it feels the field is getting too close to 100 players.
Thursday, March 27, 2014 at 09:56 AM
Reader Comments (8)
How about the top 50 as of the middle of March. Plenty of time to trade rental house keys among the added/dropped golfers.
On one hand we have golf writers lamenting that there are so few of themselves left, and then on the other we have one of the sport's foremost journos gnashing his teeth at a non-existing controversy that he made up himself.
Maybe there aren't many golf writers around because there just isn't that much worth writing about?
Past Masters Winners - as currently exempt
All winners on PGA and European Tour for preceding 12 months.
Top 35 players in the World Rankings otherwise not exempt at end of US Tour Season
Top 35 current players in World Rankings as of March 1st, otherwise not exempt
Ryder Cup members from past Team, otherwise not exempt
U.S. Open, The Open, PGA, Champions for the 5 past years, otherwise not exempt
Top 15 player from Masters previous year
Top 5 finishers from OPEN, pervious year
Top 5 finishers from US Open, previous year
Top 5 finishers from PGA, pervious year
Top 20 from current US Money List previous year
Top 20 current year US Money List,
Top 20 European Tour Money List previous year
Top 20 current year European Money List as if March 1.
Current US. Am Champion & Runner-up
Current British Am Champion & Runner-up
Current Asian Am Champion
Obviously some will be duplicate quailify, but this would provide a very high-quality field, and keep a touch of high-level amateur players in the field as Bobby Jones hoped.
If the field only produced 75-80 players the depth would be highly competitive.
Personally, I think year-end top 50 makes as much sense as year-end top 30 on the money list, so I don't have a problem with that. The top 30 in the FedEx Cup would be a better criterion to ditch.
@ Hawkeye, then make it the Topy15 on the Euro Tour and top 35 on US Tour if you want to provide more equity.
Either way, you are going to get a lot of duplicate qualifiers.
Making it the best field doesn't mean it has to be a larger field. TPC Championship already has that honor.
Agree with Hawk, no way that ever happens. Now it would be VERY interesting to watch player behaviour/movement if that criteria were in place. Late in the process Non-exempt players would be making a beeline for Euro events they would otherwise never consider playing in!