Augusta National Golf Club and R&A announced on Tuesday that winners from the Scotland Open, Spanish Open, Japan Open, Hong Kong Open, Australia Open and South Africa Open will win an invitation to the Masters and Open Championships starting next year.
Augusta National Golf Club has also announced that winners of the PGA Tour’s seven FedEx Fall Tournaments will no longer be able to win an invitation to the Masters unless they qualify in a different way.
The governing body said the new qualification changes for the six national opening winners “recognizing the global strength of elite professional golf, ensuring a strong international route from several professional tours to both major championships.”
“The Masters Tournament has long recognized the importance of having international representatives among invited guests,” Augusta National Golf Club and Masters Chairman Fred Ridley said in a statement. “We are proud to work together with R&A with a shared commitment to the global game.
“Today’s announcement reinforces the organisation’s collective vision to reward the talents of the world around the world to the top of the historic National Open Championship. We hope that this formal recognition will bring a bright light to these players and the events they represent at the Masters and Open starting next year.”
The winner of the Scotland’s Open is a jointly approved event by the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, and has already won an invitation to the Masters with a full allocation of 500 points counting in the Tour Championship qualifying round.
Augusta National Golf Club has changed one of its qualification categories to “Individual winners of PGA Tour events that award full point allocations applicable to end-of-season tour championships.”
The Masters has the smallest discipline of the four majors and prefers to stay with less than 100 players to improve their experience.
This is the first significant change to the Masters Qualifying category since 2013. Augusta National invited the top 30 from the PGA Tour money list, reducing the top finisher category with the previous edition of the 16-12 Masters.
Fall tournaments include the Procoll Championship, Sanderson Farm Championship, Bay Current Classic, Utah Bank of Utah Technology Championship, Butterfield Bermuda Championship and RSM Classic.
International golfers were able to qualify for the Open through the R&A Open Qualifying Series, which consists of 15 tournaments in 13 countries around the world.
“We share the same goals with Augusta National, helping players compete in both the Open and Master locations at the National Open, and in doing so, showcasing and strengthening our sport in those regions.” “This creates outstanding opportunities for athletes from all regions of the world to qualify, and we firmly believe this will continue to enrich the quality of the fields of both major championships.”
The openings identified by R&A and Augusta National are part of the Asia Tour (Hong Kong), Japan Golf Tour, Sunshine Tour (South Africa), and the PGA Tour of Australia and Europe Tour (Scottish and Spain).
Although not the goal, the move also gives opportunities to Saudi-backed LIV golf players. R&A created a waiver category for major LIV players this year. Augusta National did not like to use special invitations if they felt that someone should be invited. Joaquín Niemann received the invitation twice.
However, LIV players have been stopped by the PGA Tour, but can take part in these national openings and chase the spots to the Open and Masters. The 2024 Neimann invitation to Master is largely thanks to Australia’s open victory.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.