Who plays in the Masters: Winners, finishers and performers

Apr. 4—Augusta National co-founder Bobby Jones was the world's greatest golfer when he retired after completing the Grand Slam. He was 28 years old when he won the U.S. Open, British Open, British Amateur and U.S. Amateur in 1930.

Those four tournaments are the backbone of the Masters invitation criteria. American winners of these tournaments have been invited to every Masters and still earn an honorary, non-competing permanent invitation.

The 1934 invitees also included select PGA tournament winners, plus its leading money winners. It would be more than 35 years before winning those tournaments or counting money would be a consideration.

The 1935 list "included the first 24 finishers in the 1934 event, all past and present open and amateur titleholders and others who made creditable showings in competition since the initial tournament," said Clifford Roberts, Augusta National co-founder and Masters Tournament chairman. The Walker and Ryder cup teams were also criteria.

Roberts's words provide the framework for most invitation categories. It also introduced measuring performance from the previous Masters. The methods of selection have been:

—Win a major championship or designated tournament

—Finish near the top of a major championship

—Play for an American team internationally

—Accumulate a scoring record, points or money

—Election by a collection of past champions

—Special invitation

Changes — whether the number invited, length of invitation or the category itself — generally have come in bunches over two- or three-year spans. At span's end, the stated goal — to limit the field for operational reasons, reflect the growth or golf internationally, increase the quality of competitors, etc. — is reflected in the field.

Winning and finishing the majors

Winning the Masters was added as its own criterion in 1938. In 1940, Roberts told champion Jimmy Demaret that winning meant a lifelong invitation. By the end of the decade, the word "lifetime" followed Masters champion in the category description.

Byron Nelson (1937), Arnold Palmer (1958), Larry Mize (1986) and Jose Maria Olazabal are among the dozen golfers who turned top 24 finishes into Masters victories. Losing his lifetime amateur exemption by turning pro, Palmer used his T7 finish in 1957 as a catalyst to his first Masters title.

Before 2000, players were listed in only one category. The list was organized by ranked classifications in descending order from the Masters champions. Players eligible in multiple categories were listed only in the highest one. Since 1938, the (1) behind a player's name has indicated Masters champion.

Publications in the 1980s, including one published by the Masters, wrote about and listed multiple points of entry. In 1982, for example, Jack Nicklaus was reported to qualify in eight categories. After his "Tiger Slam," Tiger Woods also had eight numbers after his name in 2002, including 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 — for the four majors and The Players Championship.

The top Masters finishers increased to 30 in 1937 and returned to 24 in 1946, where it stayed until wholesale qualification changes reduced it to16 starting in 2000. It has been top 12, plus ties, since 2014.

Starting in 1936, the top finishers in the U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur earned return spots. The U.S. Open cutoff started with the top 30. The top finishers mirrored the Masters finishers from 1937 until 1958, when it was reduced from 24 to 16.

Winged Foot and Seminole club pro Claude Harmon converted his T-19 at the 1947 U.S. Open into an invitation and his only major victory. Harmon coasted in for a five-stroke, course-record-tying victory in the 1948 Masters.

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U.S. Open finishers were reduced to eight in 2000 and down to four, plus ties, in 2014.

In 1937, the last eight players in the U.S. Amateur garnered invitations. After its match play format changed to stroke play in 1965, four players tied for eighth .

The Masters dropped ties from the U.S. Amateur in 1966. They instituted a drawing to fill the final category spot. Amateur James A. Grant won the first drawing and Michael E. Morley was designated as an alternate.

The championship returned to match play in 1973 and the top eight qualified. Eight was reduced to four for the 1974 Masters. Of the four eliminated quarterfinalists, only 51-year-old Bill Campbell had ever played the Masters — or would again.

"I've earned my invitation to the Masters" a 19-year-old Curtis Strange said after the 1974 quarterfinals.

The semifinalists were reduced to finalists starting in 1989, when the club started inviting winners of the U.S. Public Links and Mid-Amateur championships. 2008 Masters Champion Trevor Immelman secured his first Masters invitation with his 1998 Pub Links title. It was removed as a qualification in 2016.

Initially inviting the international champions of the British Open did not result in any Masters' tee times. The 1935 invitation list included British Open winners from the 1890s. Neither 79-year-old John Ball, nor J.H. Taylor, 64, ever played the Masters. The winners from the 1930s and most of the 1940s didn't either.

Henry Cotton, winner of the 1933 British Open, declined the first Augusta National Invitation. He played his first Masters in 1948, becoming the first international British Open winner to play.

In the 1950s, South Africa's Bobby Locke (1949) and Australia's Peter Thomson (1954) earned "lifetime invitations," but only competed in a combined 12 Masters.

"Locke's status, insofar as this tourney, is concerned is that his victory in the British Open makes him eligible for the Masters' for life," Roberts said in 1950.

Sam Snead and Tom Watson both were invited for their first Masters' win as a British Open champion, although each would have qualified in other categories.

Finishing in the top four at the British Open didn't merit a Masters invitation until 2000 . And winning the British Amateur remains the sole qualifier.

The PGA Championship was added for the top four finishers in 1936. Its winner was given its own category the next year. The top eight finishers in the PGA were invited to Augusta from 1937 to 2000, when it was reduced to four.

When the PGA Championship was played in February 1971, the winner received an invitation to the '71 and '72 Masters, but the other top eight would only play in the 1972 Masters.

The 1934 invitees included winners of the Metropolitan, Miami and Southeastern opens. Until 1972, winning Tour events did not merit an invitation with exceptions for war and Canada.

World War II changes qualifications

World War II necessitated changes and the Masters was dormant from 1943-1945. For example, the 1942 tournament list omitted the last-named Walker and Ryder cup teams. Neither cup was played between 1939 to 1946.

Since no U.S. opens or amateurs were held since 1941, the usual criteria couldn't apply. A special committee of Augusta National members selected eight amateurs and eight professionals with a special invitation to the 1946 Masters.

In that category were Frank Stranahan and Carey Middlecoff, two amateurs who won professional events in 1945. It was each's first Masters.

Other special invitations went to Lloyd Mangrum and Jim McHale, winners of service championships in the European theater, and Augusta National Pro Ed Dudley.

The following year brought two new categories: Interservice champion (1947-50) and home club pro (1947-1957).

U.S. Navy Aviation Chief Machinist Mate Joseph C. MacDonald, won the first Interservice Golf tournament for active-duty military. They played the Oliver General Hospital Course in Augusta — the same Forest Hills course where Jones won the 1930 Southeastern Open.

Air Force Capt. Fred Moseley won the next two interservice titles. The first at Pebble Beach in the summer of 1948. He played in the 1949 and 1950 Masters.

Dudley, the Augusta National club pro, played the first 14 Masters. Dudley is the only person ever invited under the Home Club Pro category (1947-1957). He played his last Masters round in 1950.

Years later, other tournaments had invitation categories: The Players Championship (1999, 3-year invitation), the Asia-Pacific (2009, 1 year) and Latin American (2017, 1 year) amateurs, and the Olympics (2017, 1 year).

. 2021 Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama won in 2010 and 2011 to earn two appearances in Augusta.

American teams invited

Although the teams weren't always named before the Masters, American players on the last-named Ryder and Walker cup teams were consistently invited. Starting in 1967, the amateurs from the World Amateur and Walker Cup teams alternated years.

Most of the 1951 Walker Cup team, plus alternates, played Augusta that year. The list included Aiken's Bobby Knowles and future Augusta National member Charles Coe.

Amateur Billy Joe Patton played the 1954 Masters as an alternate to the 1953 Ryder Cup team.

'JACKIE GETS INVITATION TO MASTERS' screamed the headline in the Columbus Dispatch announcing Ohio State sophomore Jack Nicklaus was invited as part of the Walker Cup team.

The last Walker Cup team played in 1987, the World Amateur team in 1988, the Ryder Cup in 1991. .

O Canadian Club

In the late 1950s, four American golfers were invited under international criteria.

The Augusta National's stated reason for asking Doug Sanders, of Cedartown, Ga., to the 1957 Masters was that he won the Canadian Open as an amateur.

"Obviously we could not discriminate against him because of his citizenship," Roberts said, indicating winning the Canadian Open was a criterion used for international golfers.

In 1958, George Bayer and Nick Weslock were invited similarly. Bayer, from Washington state, won the 1957 Canadian Open, while Michigan's Weslock was the 1957 Canadian Amateur champion.

In 1959, American Wesley Ellis' invitation was announced with the champions votes. Wire and bylined reports, plus a second-hand account from Jackie Burke in the Fort Worth Star Telegram, all said Ellis was invited for the Canadian Open.

By the mid-1960s, that route was closed to American golfers.

"I thought when I won the 1965 Canadian Amateur that it carried automatic eligibility," Georgia Tech golfer George (Bunky) Henry said. "Ever since I found out it didn't, I've been playing golf working for a berth in the Masters."

By the time Lee Elder won the Nigerian Open in 1971, the Masters' policy addressed Americans in international events.

"Unlike the foreign section of the field, all U.S. players must first become eligible through a fixed set of qualification regulations," read a 1971 press release from Roberts.

Champions get to vote

In 1940, the Masters introduced votes by past and present U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur titleholders for the best professional and amateur not otherwise qualified.

Roberts said Jones had extended the 1949 invitations to U.S. Open and Amateur selections. This was the first year that Jones' signature was on the physical invitations — and the first year he did not compete.

The Masters champions were given a vote in 1956 to pick an amateur, professional or old-timer. The 12 Masters champions chose amateur Ken Venturi. Venturi, who missed the 1955 Masters while in the Army, led for three days before finishing runner-up to Burke.

The 1967 tournament would be the final year for voting by U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open champions. The Masters champions kept their vote for four more years.

The PGA and the Masters points

By 1936, the winter performance criteria had been formalized: "Two places have been reserved for the two professionals not on the above tournament list who make the best record on the current winter circuit."

Scoring averages determined those spots before World War II. Golfers such as Sam Snead and Jimmy Demaret earned their first taste of Augusta with them.

Lloyd Mangrum made the 1940 Masters in the winter circuit spot. He shot a course-record 64 in the opening round, a mark that stood 46 years.

In 1949, Pete Cooper and Dave Douglas each had one win and nearly identical scoring records for the final winter spot.

The two would play 36 holes at Augusta National to fill the remaining vacancy. But Douglas was unable to get to Augusta that Sunday and the playoff was canceled. With the final spot, Cooper finished tied for 21st and returned in 1950.

Soon after, the PGA compiled points for wins, not scoring. Newspapers ran updates of the points before each Masters.

The points system awarded 35 points to winners of any co-sponsored PGA Tour event. Runners-up earned 25 points, third place got 24 points, etc., until 25th place earned one point.

The top two from the fall circuit were added in 1962. In 1968 the top six were invited based on points from Masters to Masters. It became eight in 1971.

"We believe the points system, especially on a year-round basis, is the fairest method we can use to bring in annually the best of the younger talent," Roberts said after the 1967 Masters.

Calls for earnings to be a qualifying factor echoed throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

The Masters added the year-end top 30 of the PGA Tour's money list in 1983. When it dropped the winners of PGA events in 2000, the money list increased to 40 players. A top-3 money list the four weeks before was added.

In 2003, the week-before money list increased to 10. When the Masters reinstated winning select PGA Tour events in 2008, that money list was eliminated. The year-end money list was also cut back to 30. Money was eliminated in 2014.

Golfers qualifying for the season-ending PGA tournament were added in 2008.

Let the winners in

In June 1971, the Augusta National scrapped the Masters points and champions vote. In their place winners of major Tour-sponsored events would be invited. The change was retroactive to the first tournament after the 1971 Masters.

"Because so many capable young players are now available to the PGA co-sponsored tour that not a single event could be classified as an easy-to-win event," Roberts said of the change in the club's earlier stance rejecting tour winners.

He said that the Masters champions felt it was time to substitute the point system for the tournament winners.

Had the rule been in effect a year earlier, Johnny Miller, who finished T2 with Nicklaus would not have been in the field. Future PGA Commissioner Deane Beaman missed the 1972 Masters. He said he would have qualified under the points system, which rewarded golfers for steady play over the year.

Charlie Sifford was among the golfers who spoke out about the change, saying it would be harder for a Black golfer to qualify. Two springs later, Lee Elder won the Monsanto event and a Masters invitation.

World comes to Augusta

On Nov. 23, 1998, the Augusta National altered the qualifying criteria in place for 60 years.

"Our existing qualification system has served us well," said chairman Hootie Johnson. "We think, however, our new methodology better reflects the changes in golf, and will ensure that the best players worldwide are invited to the Masters each year.'"

The introduction of the Official World Golf Ranking as the measurement controlled more than half of the field each Masters. The top 50 ranked golfers at year's end earned invites, as well as the top 50 one month before each Masters. The month before was changed to the week before in 2003.

These changes reflected the growth of the international game. Non-U.S. players had made up about one-third of the Masters starters since the 1960s. With the implementation of the ranking system, that number jumped to half or more of participants within a decade. An all-time high of 55 international golfers teed it up at the Augusta National in 2010 out of a field of 96.

The rankings, based on a two-year record of performance in tournaments rated on field strength, had been used by the British Open as a qualifier for years. The U.S. Open invited the top 20 ranked golfers in 1998. The formula, which started in the late 1960s, gained popularity in the 1980s with Sony's takeover and charting the world's No. 1 golfer.

Australia's Greg Norman spent over 300 weeks in that top spot in his career. Only Tiger Woods has been the top-ranked golfer longer. Media accounts of the world-ranking change noted that Norman would now qualify for the 1999 Masters since his exemption for winning the British Open was expired.

Two years later, Norman made headlines again when the Master issued him a special invitation.