Anyone even remotely familiar with golf knows what an honor just playing in The Masters is. The trip to Augusta National Golf Club each April is a touchstone of any player's career just as it's a pilgrimage to golf Mecca for patrons and golf fans. The Masters stands alone in its beauty and prestige, partially because it has by far the smallest field of any of the four major championships in the sport.
If you're not deep in the golf world, though, you might be wondering how players qualify for The Masters. It's a fair question, wondering how Augusta National ultimately decides which 85-100 players (roughly) make it into the field for the Masters Tournament each year. As it turns out, there is a strict list of qualification metrics for which players can earn an invitation.
There are 95 players in the field for the 2025 Masters Tournament, so let's dive into the qualification metrics set forth by Augusta National and then dive into how every player made it into the field this year.
The 21 ways players can qualify for The Masters
Whether you knew it or not, there are 21 ways in which a player can earn an invitation to The Masters. Some are similar, some are redundant, and there is at least one that is relatively new given the shifting landscape of the golf world. But before we talk about how every player got into this year's field at The Masters, we need to obviously see every way in which a player can earn that invite.
- Previous winners of The Masters
- U.S. Open winners of the last five years (2020-24)
- The Open Championship winners of the last five years (2020-24)
- PGA Championship winners of the last five years (2020-24)
- THE PLAYERS Championship winners of the last three years (2023-25)
- Winner of the gold medal at the Olympic Games (only relevant year after Olympics)
- Winner and runner-up of the U.S. Amateur (2024)
- Winner of the British Amateur Championship (2024)
- Winners of the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (2024)
- Winner of the Latin America Amateur Championship (2025)
- Winner of the U.S. Mid-Amateur Golf Championship (2024)
- Winner of the NCAA Men's Division I Golf Individual Championship (2024)
- Anyone finishing top 12 (plus ties) in the previous year's Masters Tournament
- Anyone finishing top 4 (plus ties) in the previous year's U.S. Open
- Anyone finishing top 4 (plus ties) in the previous year's Open Championship
- Anyone finishing top 4 (plus ties) in the previous year's PGA Championship
- PGA Tour winners in events from last year's Masters Tournament to this year's
- All players who qualified for last season's TOUR Championship
- Top 50 players in the Official World Golf Rankings as of Dec. 31 of previous year
- Top 50 players in the Official World Golf Rankings as of March 31 this year
- Special Invitations
The two invitation methods that are a bit unique for the 2025 Masters Tournament are the Olympic gold medalist and the special invitations. With the Olympics only being held every four years, that qualification metric is only relevant for the year immediately following the Games. Not that it really matters in this instance, of course, as Scottie Scheffler won gold and would've been in regardless.
As for the special invitations, those came really into the forefront with LIV Golf's departure and so many of the qualifications being tied to the PGA Tour and OWGR, which obviously excludes LIV players. While there are several past champions of The Masters and other majors that still qualify, someone like Joaquin Niemann has received a special invite to this year's tournament. Nicolai Hojgaard, who plays on the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, also received a special invitation this year.
How all 95 players in The Masters qualified to play in 2025
Now let's get into this 95-player field at Augusta National and how every player qualified for the tournament (as well as the other qualification metrics that they fit, but they are qualified in numerical order.
Qualification | Players in 2025 Masters Field (Number of other Qualifications) |
|---|---|
1. Past Masters Winners | Angel Cabrera, Fred Couples, Sergio Garcia, Dustin Johnson, Zach Johnson, Bernhard Langer, Hideki Matsuyama (17, 18, 19, 20), Phil Mickelson (4), Jose Mariz Olazabal, Jon Rahm (2, 19), Patrick Reed (13), Scottie Scheffler (5, 6, 17, 18, 19, 20), Charl Schwartzel, Adam Scott (18, 19, 20), Jordan Spieth, Bubba Watson, Mike Weir, Danny Willett |
2. U.S. Open Winners of Last 5 Years | Wyndham Clark (18, 19, 20), Bryson DeChambea (13, 14, 16, 19, 20), Matt Fitzpatrick (19) |
3. Open Championship Winners of Last 5 Years | Brian Harman (17, 19, 20), Collin Morikawa (4, 13, 16, 18, 19, 20), Xander Schauffele (4, 13, 18, 19, 20), Cameron Smith (13) |
4. PGA Championship Winners of Last 5 Years | Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas (18, 19, 20) |
5. THE PLAYERS Championship Winners of Last 3 Years | Rory McIlroy (14, 17, 18, 19, 20) |
6. Olympic Gold Medalist | (Scottie Scheffler previously qualified) |
7. Winner and Runner-Up of 2024 U.S. Amateur | Jose Luis Ballester, Noah Kent |
8. Winner of the 2024 British Amateur | Jacob Skov Olesen turned pro, forfeiting his exemption |
9. Winner of the 2024 Asia-Pacific Amateur | Din Wenyi turned pro, forfeiting his exemption |
10. Winner of the 2025 Latin America Amateur | Justin Hastings |
11. Winner of the 2024 U.S. Mid-Amateur Golf Championship | Evan Beck |
12. Winner of the 2024 NCAA Division I Men's Championship | Hiroshi Tai |
13. Top 12 and Ties at The Masters in 2024 | Ludvig Åberg (17, 18, 19, 20), Cameron Davis (17), Tommy Fleetwood (18, 19, 20), Tyrrell Hatton (19, 20), Max Homa (19), Matthieu Pavon (18, 19), Adam Schenk, Cameron Young (19), Will Zalatoris |
14. Top 4 and Ties at the 2024 U.S. Open | Patrick Cantlay (18, 19, 20), Tony Finaul (18, 19, 20) |
15. Top 4 and Ties at the 2024 Open Championship | Billy Horschel (18, 19, 20), Thriston Lawrence (19), Justin Rose (19, 20) |
16. Top 4 and Ties at the 2024 PGA Championship | Thomas Detry (17, 20), Viktor Hovland (17, 18, 19, 20) |
17. Winners of PGA Tour Tournaments Between 2024 and 2025 Masters | Keegan Bradley (18, 19, 20), Brian Campbell, Rafael Campos, Nico Echavarria (20), Austin Eckroat (19), Harris English (20), Russell Henley (18, 19, 20), Joe Highsmith, Patton Kizzire, Robert MacIntyre (18, 19, 20), Matt McCarty (19), Maverick McNealy (19, 20), Taylor Pendrith (18, 19, 20), J.T. Poston (19, 20), Aaron Rai (18, 19, 20), Davis Riley, Sepp Straka (18, 19, 20), Nick Taylor (20), Davis Thompson (19, 20), Min Woo Lee (19, 20), Jhonattan Vegas, Kevin Yu |
18. Players Who Qualified for 2024 TOUR Championship | Byeong Hun An (19, 20), Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Akshay Bhatia (19, 20), Sam Burns (19, 20), Tom Hoge, Sungjae Im (19, 20), Chris Kirk, Shane Lowry (19, 20), Sahith Theegala (19, 20) |
19. Top 50 Players in OWGR on Dec. 31, 2024 | Corey Conners (20), Jason Day (20), Nick Dunlap (20), Lucas Glover (20), Max Greyserman (20), Rasmus Hojgaard, Tom Kim (20), Denny McCarthy (20) |
20. Top 50 Players in OWGR on March 31, 2025 | Daniel Berger, Laurie Canter, Stephan Jaeger, Michael Kim, J.J. Spaun |
21. Special Invitations | Nicolai Hojgaard, Joaquin Niemann |
One interesting thing to note, specifically as it pertains to past winners, is that every previous champion at The Masters is eligible to play but, whether because of age, health, injuries or something else, not everyone does. Tiger Woods isn't playing in 2025 after suffering an Achilles tear, Vijay Singh withdrew due to injury earlier in the week, and Trevor Immelman will be in the broadcast booth.
Scheffler stands alone, though, in that he qualified for The Masters in seven different categories. The only other player who can say that is Collin Morikawa. What's interesting is that Morikawa obviously doesn't have the exemption as a past Masters champion, so he could surpass Scheffler in that regard if he were to win at Augusta this year (assuming Scheffler doesn't win or Top 4 in another major).