Letter from Augusta: Augusta National could have provided a huge lift in elevating the stature of Europe’s leading players

At least Masters chairman Fred Ridley says he’s considering it. Maybe next year.

READY: Rory McIlroy, of Northern Ireland, watches his tee shot on the fourth hole during the par 3 contest the Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on Wednesday, April 5, 2023, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

After Masters chairman Fred Ridley hinted in December about potential changes to the qualification criteria to get into the Masters, Wednesday’s announcement of one new category and a couple of minor semantic tweaks was pretty disappointing.

Starting in 2024, the NCAA Division I men’s national champion – America’s collegiate winner – will add a seventh amateur invitation to the major. Augusta telegraphed that changed this year by extending the 2022 national champion Gordon Sargent a special invitation, the first ever to an American player.

The national collegiate women’s champion will also receive an invitation to the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.

“These additions to our qualifications are in recognition of the impressive quality of today's collegiate game, and in continued respect to Bobby Jones who believed in the importance of the best amateurs in the world competing at Augusta National,” said Ridley.

Because of the PGA Tour’s changing to a calendar year schedule next year, the wording to the exemption category for PGA Tour event winners was changed to continue including the tour’s fall events that will no longer be part of the regular season FedEx Cup schedule.

It also clarified the Tour Championship exemption to include “those qualifying and eligible.” Taylor Gooch got into this year’s field despite not being eligible for the season-ending event because he left to join LIV Golf.

Sergio Garcia, of Spain, lines up a putt on the fourth hole during the par 3 contest at the Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on Wednesday, April 5, 2023, in Augusta, Ga. Garcia's shirt displays his LIV team logo. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

What Ridley did not announce was anything that provided alternative pathways beyond the Official World Golf Ranking for top players on other world tours such as the DP World, Japan, Sunshine, Australasian or Asian.

Considering the bulk of Augusta’s qualifications benefit PGA Tour, it was disappointing that the club didn’t throw a bone to the European circuit to include possible exemptions for the BMW PGA Championship winner at Wentworth or the top-10 finishers in the Race to Dubai final standings.

“We actually have discussed that, and that may well be something we do in the future,” Ridley said of creating different pathways beneficial to other tours including the DP World.

“We really want to make sure that the Masters Tournament field is representative of the best players in the world, so we are constantly looking at those possibilities.

“Our conclusion for the time being is that the Official World Golf Ranking, it's a really good way to invite players. It's an objective criteria based on data-driven analytics, and it's consistently applied. I think most would agree it's a good system.”

The new OWGR metrics actually benefit the PGA Tour now more than ever, with diminished points available for less deep fields on other tours including the DP World. Adding the OWGR as a qualification around the turn of the century opened doors into the Masters for more international players, but that seems less likely in the future unless players have access to the PGA Tour.

Ridley admitted that it’s “something we think about a lot” and will monitor in the future.

“While we strongly believe the world rankings is a good way to measure success and eligibility for tournaments, yeah, you do raise a good question,” he said.

“We've talked about (top players on other tours) in the past. I'm not saying we're going to make any changes in that regard, but we will consider that.

"I do think that one of the things that realistically we have to think about is … the strength of fields in those other tours. From time to time, you'll have someone break out (and) do something significant enough perhaps to get in a higher-level tournament, and then the progression continues. …

“So the real solution, I think, is to grow the game in these areas, produce better golfers for these tours that will then legitimize consideration of performance on those tours to get into bigger tournaments.”

It was a kick in the grass for the DP World Tour, which has a strategic alliance with the PGA Tour but struggles to keep up with the game’s most powerful tour in every area except the Ryder Cup. Augusta National could have provided a huge lift in elevating the stature of Europe’s leading players with a few spots into the world’s most exclusive major championship.

At least Ridley says he’s considering it. Maybe next year.