On the home page of The Associated Press recently appeared this headline: “Masters might want to rethink invitations to PGA Tour winners in the fall.” The analysis piece by venerated golf journalist Doug Ferguson took a dim view of exemptions for the FedEx Fall winners.
“The road easier traveled to Augusta National,” was his suggestion for what the tour should call the eight-tournament run after the Tour Championship that determines who gets full cards for the new PGA Tour season when it starts in January. “The fields are weak. The reward is not.”
It’s a reasonable take. The new fall series doesn’t draw many heavyweights, who are either gracing a few European fields or taking extended breaks before the new year starts. That was largely the case even during the wraparound-season era, but that pattern is more deeply calcified now that the points don’t count toward getting into the 2025 FedEx Cup playoffs.
But is the assessment fair? And should the biggest perk for winning – a trip to Augusta National to play in the Masters – be cleaved away from the fall events as punishment for Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy not showing up to play in them?
The opinion here is that the answer is an emphatic NO. In fact, the fall events are the best illustration for the value and impact of the Masters offering invitations to “individual winners of PGA Tour events that award a full-point allocation from previous Masters to current Masters.” Without the fall, the magic of that exemption category would be almost entirely wasted.
Let’s first dispense with the notion that the FedEx Fall events are “weak.” The highest post-Tour Championship field ratings thus far per the Official World Golf Ranking have been (in order): Dunhill Links (217.62), Procore (211.98), Shriners Children’s (208.45), BMW PGA (197.58), Zozo (194.32), Sanderson Farms (179.65), Black Desert (167.41), Irish Open (166.53), Spanish Open (145.71), Andalucía Masters (137.96), French Open (130.72) and the European Masters (125.35).
The Dunhill takes the fall crown largely because it has a 168-player field and the PGA Tour fall events peak at 144 players. Depth matters. Yet two of the FedEx Fall events rate higher than the DP World Tour’s flagship event at Wentworth, and every one of them is higher than last year’s DP World Tour Championship (153.84).
Though the fall PGA Tour event fields don’t rate the same standard as nearly all of the rest of the regular season and playoffs, they’re still significantly stronger than other events across global tours. The Hero Dubai Desert Classic (172.84) – the crown jewel of the winter Middle East swing – is the only other event that’s even comparable.
A case could even be made for the PGA Tour’s opposite events – Barracuda (158.98), Myrtle Beach Classic (147.31), ISCO (146.09), Corales Puntacana (140.32) and Puerto Rico (118.41) – most of which boast OWGR field ratings higher than all but six other non-PGA Tour events worldwide.
“Our goal is to have, to the greatest extent possible, the best field in golf, the best players in the world. Having said that, we never have had all the best players in the world because of the structure of our tournament. It’s an invitational. It’s limited field. It’s a small field.” – Fred Ridley
It’s no skin off the Masters to offer spots to the eight fall winners. Since the Masters reinstalled its exemptions for PGA Tour winners in 2007, the field size has ranged from 87 to 99 – averaging 92.4. Since hosting 97 players in 2014 and ’15, Augusta National has seen its average field size dwindle to 89.2.
“Our goal is to have, to the greatest extent possible, the best field in golf, the best players in the world,” Masters chairman Fred Ridley said. “Having said that, we never have had all the best players in the world because of the structure of our tournament. It’s an invitational. It’s limited field. It’s a small field.”
As of now, the 2025 Masters field has 74 qualified players. There are seven players inside the OWGR top 50 not otherwise qualified and three more fall events to be played, so that qualified number could grow to as many as 84 by year’s end. There’s no danger that the field will cross the acceptable limit by reaching 100 players next April.
Only eight players have qualified exclusively (so far) via winning a PGA Tour event – five of them this fall. Three of those eight – Davis Thompson, J.T. Poston and Matt McCarty – are in the OWGR top 50. That means only Davis Riley (Colonial), Jhonattan Vegas (3M Open), Patton Kizzire (Procore), Kevin Yu (Sanderson Farms) and Nico Echavarria (Zozo) have gotten in exclusively for winning a qualified tour event.
Is that really too much? No. In fact, it’s probably not enough. Since the PGA Tour has adopted its signature-event model and now has 11 limited-field, no-cut events on the calendar, there are fewer opportunities for players to win their way into the Masters. There were 18 tournaments (counting the Olympics) between the Masters and the Tour Championship at which the winner earns a spot, and half of those were won by guys named Scheffler, McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Hideki Matsuyama or Bryson DeChambeau – players not exactly concerned about where they were going to be the second week of April.
The Masters WANTS people to win their way in like Willy Wonka wanted people to find golden tickets. And seven of the 14 first-timers booked for April are tour winners (five more are amateurs).
“I can remember innumerable times where winners of tournament events would be more excited to hear that they had automatically qualified for the Masters than to receive the first-prize money check,” said former Masters chairman Billy Payne when he reinstated the automatic invitation for PGA Tour winners in 2007. “So it was an exciting component of golf that really only the Masters could offer, and we all thought it appropriate that we bring it back.”
“This is what I’ve wanted to do. To be able to do it this quickly, to be able to play in all these tournaments I’m going to be able to play in coming up is going to be really special, so I am just really looking forward to that.” – Matt McCarty
A story such as McCarty going from trying to find traction in the minors to winning three Korn Ferry Tour events in five weeks and following it up with a PGA Tour win two months later is exactly the kind of narrative Augusta wants to highlight.
“This is what I’ve wanted to do,” McCarty said after winning the Black Desert Championship. “To be able to do it this quickly, to be able to play in all these tournaments I’m going to be able to play in coming up is going to be really special, so I am just really looking forward to that.”
Reaching the Masters is an achievement and it should require an achievement by players to get in. Winning a PGA Tour event – any PGA Tour event – is an achievement worthy of rewarding with an invitation.
Are there others? Certainly. Ridley said the Masters is “constantly looking at those possibilities” for adding worthy players to the field, and there are certainly other accomplishments beyond the PGA Tour worthy of consideration without pushing too close to exceeding desired field limits:
The BMW PGA champion; Top individual finisher otherwise not qualified in the final DP World Tour standings; Top individual finishers on the Japan, Asian, Australasian, Sunshine and LIV Golf tours; Winners of select historic international events such as the Australian and South African opens.
These are just a few ideas, and it takes only a few to make those achievements even more meaningful and special.
Making it to the Masters is magical for those who strive their whole lives to reach that milestone. Winning PGA Tour events is part of that magic. Here’s hoping Augusta National never again takes that carrot away from them.