Masters Open: Ranking Changes, New Paths to the Major

New Rules at the Masters and Open Championship: A Twist in Invitations

The Augusta National Golf Club and the R&A announced significant changes to the qualifying criteria for the Masters and the Open Championship, promising greater international representation and adjustments to invitations for elite tournaments. Starting next year, the winners of six key national opens, including the Scottish Open, Spanish Open, Japan Open, Hong Kong Open, Australian Open, and South African Open, will receive direct invitations to both prestigious championships. These changes seek to strengthen the international routes to these important tournaments, recognizing the growing strength of professional golf globally.

The Masters Tournament has always valued international representation among its invitees.

Fred Ridley, Chairman of the Augusta National Golf Club

In addition, the policy for the PGA Tour’s fall tournaments has been modified. Winners of the seven FedEx Fall events will no longer automatically receive an invitation to the Masters, unless they qualify by other means. This decision reflects the desire to maintain a manageable field of players at the Masters, which traditionally has the smallest field of the four majors. Affected fall tournaments include the Procore Championship, Sanderson Farms Championship, Baycurrent Classic, Bank of Utah Championship, World Wide Technology Championship, Butterfield Bermuda Championship, and the RSM Classic. These changes mark the first significant modification to the Masters’ classification criteria since 2013. The R&A, for its part, has established a classification system for the Open Championship through its Open Qualifying Series, which covers 15 tournaments in 13 countries.

We share the goal of offering places in the Open and the Masters to players competing in the national opens, thus helping to strengthen our sport in those regions.

Mark Darbon, Executive Director of the R&A

The national opens that now grant invitations are part of circuits such as the Asian Tour (Hong Kong), Japan Golf Tour, Sunshine Tour (South Africa), PGA Tour of Australasia and European Tour (Scotland and Spain). Although not the main goal, these changes also open opportunities for LIV Golf players, who can participate in national opens to try to qualify for the Open and the Masters.