The Masters Tournament is making changes to its qualification criteria that will shake up its field beginning in 2026.
Next year winners of fall PGA Tour events will no longer receive automatic invitations to the tournament. The Masters will instead give six direct exemptions to various national open winners.
The announcement, made along with the R&A, includes an emphasis on national opens for British Open qualifying.
Starting in time for the 2026 Masters, winners of the Scottish Open, Spanish Open, Japan Open, Hong Kong Open, Australian Open and the South African Open will receive invitations to the Masters.
Along with that announcement, the Masters sent out a list of its 26 tournament exemption categories, one which was changed to state that winners of PGA Tour events “that award a full-point allocation (FedEx points) applied to the season-ending Tour Championship” would receive invites.
That means the seven FedExCup Fall events that begin with the Procore Championship in two weeks will no longer see the winner automatically earn a spot at the year’s first major. Those players are mostly competing to improve their position on the final FedEx list to earn spots in signature events or to keep their playing cards for 2026.
The Masters will continue to give invites to the top 50 in the world at the end of 2025 as well as in the week prior to the Masters Tournament.
“The Masters Tournament has long recognized the significance of having international representation among its invitees,” said Masters chairman Fred Ridley in a statement. “We, along with the R&A, have a shared commitment to the global game and are proud to work together. Today’s announcement strengthens our organizations’ collective vision of rewarding top talent around the world who rise to the top of historic national open championships. We hope this formal recognition shines a bright light on these players and the events they will represent at the Masters and The Open, beginning next year.”
The Open said it would be announcing its list of Open Qualifying Series tournaments next month. The list will include 15 events in 13 countries.
“We take great pride in the range of qualification routes we offer to players around the world through the Open Qualifying Series,” said Mark Darbon, CEO of the R&A in a statement. “We share the same goal as Augusta National to offer places in both the Open and the Masters to players competing in national opens and by doing so to help to showcase and strengthen our sport in those regions. This creates an outstanding opportunity for players in all parts of the world to qualify and we firmly believe this will continue to enrich the quality of the fields in both major championships.”
2026 Masters Tournament Qualifications
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as The Masters Has Made a Big Change to Its Qualifying Criteria.
