Masters Open to Increasing National Open Winner Invites

The Masters is open to expanding the number of tournament invites it extends to winners of select national opens. This is the second year of an initiative that launched ahead of the 2026 Masters in April.

“We are very comfortable with the six national championships we’ve identified, and certainly there could be others in the future,” Augusta National Golf Club chairman Fred Ridley said on Thursday in New Zealand at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, which is operated by Augusta National and the R&A. 

Currently, winners of the national opens in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Scotland, South Africa, and Spain receive invites to the Masters and Open Championship. The move, announced in August 2025, came at the expense of lower-level PGA Tour fall series events, which previously awarded Masters invites to their winners but no longer do. “We are very happy with that initiative,” Ridley said. “We think it’s the right thing to do and certainly is one that we’re going to continue to watch over the next few years.”

Those spots for national open winners make up just six places in what is usually a Masters field of around 85–90 players, including former Masters champions, winners of recent major championships, winners of regular season PGA Tour events, and other top-ranked players and amateur champions.

If the Masters were to add more national open winners to the list, there are many to choose from: Europe has several notable championships, like the Irish, French, and Italian opens; Asia has major events, such as the Korean and Indian opens; and South America has national opens in Brazil and Argentina, among others. 

“We think that golf has increasingly become an international game,” Ridley said. “And we just feel in any way that we at the Masters Tournament can help promote that, and promoting the game of golf, really, has been part of the culture and the values of the Masters since its inception.”

This month, three players ranked notably low in the Official World Golf Rankings have sealed their invites to the 2027 Masters in April. Scotsman Grant Forrest was ranked No. 296 before winning the Spanish Open; Japan’s Yusaku Hosono was at No. 263 before winning his home national open; and American John Catlin was No. 249 before winning the Hong Kong Open. “I think that just about all but a couple of the champions to date since we announced that will have participated in their first Masters,” Ridley said. “So just for them to have that experience, take that back to their home countries is really great.”

Last year, Northern Irishman Tom McKibbin won the Hong Kong Open to become the first LIV Golf member to win one of the six national opens that offer Masters invites. McKibbin is one of the many LIV players to announce they will not return to the league if it emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.