Players unfazed by changes in Masters qualifications

Qualifying for the Masters Tournament just got harder. Making the cut just got a little easier.

Masters Chairman Billy Payne announced changes Wednesday in qualifying criteria for the major to reflect revamping of the PGA Tour schedule for 2013-14.

The bottom line: You win, you’re in.

“It’s always hard to get here, so they may as well make it harder,” said PGA Tour player Robert Garrigus, 35, who is playing in his second Masters. “You’ve got to play great to get here.”

In past years, winners of full-points PGA Tour events were invited to Augusta, but those capturing other tour events, such as those in the fall after the Tour Championship, were not.

“I think guys who win in that Fall Series, those are big events,” Ernie Els said Wednesday. “It’s just as tough as winning on the regular tour.”

With the tour restructuring to include the fall tournaments in October and November as full-points events, those winners will earn spots. To account for the added competitors, however, the Masters has changed other criteria to maintain the field size, which is 93 this year.

The top 12 finishers this Sunday – not the top 16 – will earn invitations for 2014. The top four finishers at the U.S. Open – not top eight – are coming to Augusta, just like from the British Open and the PGA Championship. Also, the tour’s year-ending list of top 30 money leaders no longer will be a way to qualify.
Brandt Snedeker calls it a “clarification.”

“It can get very complicated,” he said. “I think they are doing a good job of cleaning it up a little bit and making it easier for everybody to understand.”

Snedeker figures about the same number of players will qualify.

“I don’t know if anybody can really complain,” he said. “They do a great job here of letting you know exactly what you need to do to get in. You feel like you’ve accomplished something. I think that’s something that makes the Masters so special.”

A few more golfers will get to play after 36 holes after the cut was expanded this week from the low 44 players and ties, where it had been since 1962, to 50 and ties. The rule that players within 10 strokes of the leader make the cut is unchanged.

“Any time you have more guys make the weekend, I’m for it,” Snedeker said. “I seem to always be around (the cut line).”

Adam Scott said that although 44 wasn’t a big number and neither is 50, the latter is “probably spot on the money” at about half of the field.

Garrigus called Payne’s announcement “a very nice gesture.”

“It’s very hard to get into the tournament, let alone make the weekend out here,” he said.

Dustin Johnson said he thinks more about contending for the title than making the cut, but he’s pleased with the changes.

“You keep playing well and you’re always invited back,” he said.