The Masters has not had a triple digit field in more than 50 years, but we could hit an even 100 after four more names pushed it to 99 this week.
Masters week is just 10 days away and the size of the field could be historically large, which undoubtedly makes the green jacketed membership uncomfortable. Only one more person will have a chance to play their way into the 2015 edition and that's by winning next Sunday's Shell Houston Open. If someone already qualified for Augusta wins, then the field will remain at 99 players. The Masters' field has not hit the century mark since 1963, when 103 players teed it up. Barring no dropouts like, say, Tiger Woods, we may get to 100 next week.
The number pushed to 99 this week with the second-to-last exemption that grants invites to the top 50 in the Official World Golf Rankings the week before the Masters. The prior OWGR-based exemption came at the end of the calendar year, when the top 50 at that point locked up their spot. Since then, a handful of names have bounced in and out of that all important cut-off line, but Anirban Lahiri, Bernd Wiesberger, Branden Grace, and Paul Casey are the names who will be changing their travel plans and teeing it up at Augusta next week. A bit more on the three latest additions to the field:
Anirban Lahiri
The 27-year-old from India rocketed up the rankings just a few months after playing with a Euro Tour card. He had piled up a few wins on the Asian Tour in recent years, but never done much on either of the two major world Tours. Then he came out and won the Malaysian Open in early February and followed it up by taking the Indian Open just two weeks later. That previous work before his Euro Tour card set him up for a potential jump into the top 50, and those two Euro Tour wins pushed him from 68th to 34th in the world. He's essentially been safely in since mid-February given that world ranking. Lahiri got wiped out when he stepped up and played the WGC event at Doral, and this will obviously be a comparably loaded field with even higher stakes. But he's still young and is now just the third Indian to play the Masters.
Bernd Wiesberger
The Austrian, who played in the final pairing with Rory McIlroy at last year's PGA Championship, finished 2014 as the No. 73 player in the world. It's been a steady climb into the top 50 in the first quarter of this year, highlighted by four straight top 10s on the European Tour. The season opening swing in the Middle East was good to Wiesberger, and now he'll make his first ever start at Augusta.
Branden Grace
This will be Grace's third appearance at the Masters. In 2013, he debuted with a solid T18 finish but missed the cut last year. He's a streaky player with a ton of natural talent that's hyped by some of the other top South Africans in the game. Grace started the year at 82nd in the world, which was about 35 spots higher thanks to a season-ending win at the Alfred Dunhill. Two more wins, in particular a victory in Qatar, shot Grace up the rankings from the 80s and into the 40s. So from the Dunhill at the end of 2014 to now, he's jumped from 116th in the world to the low 40s.
Paul Casey
After two years out of the field, the Englishman returns to Augusta. Casey made a late charge with the second-place result after losing in a playoff at Riviera, and a T3 finish at the Honda Classic the next week. That two-week stretch bumped him 20 spots up the ranking from 65th to 45th. Casey spent a couple years inside the top 10, even rising to No. 3 in the world back in 2009. But then he tumbled off the map and hasn't really been a factor at the game's biggest events for the past five years. Casey was idle but sweating it out all weekend, teetering right around No. 50 as a few of the chasers behind him played in San Antonio and threatened to bump him out of the field. But now he's safely through and makes the field 99 strong.
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The close calls not already qualified include Marc Warren (52nd), Harris English (53rd), Alexander Levy (54th), Andy Sullivan (61st), Matt Jones (62nd), and Francesco Molinari (63rd). George Coetzee, who started the week at 69th in the world, nearly pulled off the huge charge with a win in Morocco but settled for third over on the Euro Tour. He had a win and two third-place finishes in the last three weeks.
Of the group missing out, Warren and English have to be the most frustrated. Warren came over to the stateside PGA Tour and just needed a mediocre finish (28th or better) at the Valero Texas Open, but instead settled for 35th.
English, a Georgia native, has been 55th or better for the past two months. He's come close to finally cracking into the top 50, but gave it away with poor finishes at Doral and an awful final round at Bay Hill. He likely needed a top 10 in San Antonio this week but could not get there. The big hitter is considered by many to be one of the most talented from an absurdly rich era of UGA golf, but unless he wins in Houston next week, he'll be at home while many of his peers tee it up in Augusta.
Here's the current field of 99, sorted by country. That's the same number as four years ago, when we came perilously close to hitting triple digits -- a mark that wouldn't please Billy Payne and the green jackets at Augusta. They like to keep it much smaller and more "manageable," compared to the ~150-man fields at the other three majors.
| 2015 Masters Field (as of 3/29/15) | |
| Argentina | Spain |
| Angel Cabrera | Sergio Garcia |
| Australia | Miguel Angel Jimenez |
| Jason Day | Jose Maria Olazabal |
| Marc Leishman | Sweden |
| Antonio Murdaca (a) | Jonas Blixt |
| Geoff Ogilvy | Henrik Stenson |
| Adam Scott | Thailand |
| John Senden | Thongchai Jaidee |
| Austria | USA |
| Bernd Wiesberger | Keegan Bradley |
| Canada | Erik Compton |
| Corey Conners | Fred Couples |
| Mike Weir | Ben Crane |
| Chile | Ben Crenshaw |
| Matias Dominguez | Jason Dufner |
| Colombia | Matt Every |
| Camilo Villegas | Rickie Fowler |
| Denmark | Jim Furyk |
| Thomas Bjorn | Bill Haas |
| England | Brian Harman |
| Paul Casey | Scott Harvey |
| Luke Donald | Russell Henley |
| Ian Poulter | Charley Hoffman |
| Justin Rose | Morgan Hoffmann |
| Lee Westwood | J.B. Holmes |
| Danny Willett | Billy Horschel |
| Fiji | Dustin Johnson |
| Vijay Singh | Zach Johnson |
| Finland | Chris Kirk |
| Mikko Ilonen | Brooks Koepka |
| France | Matt Kuchar |
| Victor Dubuisson | Hunter Mahan |
| Germany | Ben Martin |
| Martin Kaymer | Byron Meth |
| Bernhard Langer | Phil Mickelson |
| India | Larry Mize |
| Anirban Lahiri | Ryan Moore |
| Ireland | Kevin Na |
| Padraig Harrington | Mark O'Meara |
| Shane Lowry | Ryan Palmer |
| Japan | Patrick Reed |
| Hideki Matsuyama | Webb Simpson |
| Korea | Brandt Snedeker |
| Sang-Moon Bae | Jordan Spieth |
| James Hahn | Kevin Stadler |
| Seung-Yul Noh | Robert Streb |
| Gunn Yang | Kevin Streelman |
| Netherlands | Steve Stricker |
| Joost Luiten | Brendan Todd |
| Northern Ireland | Cameron Tringale |
| Darren Clarke | Jimmy Walker |
| Graeme McDowell | Bubba Watson |
| Rory McIlroy | Tom Watson |
| Scotland | Gary Woodland |
| Stephen Gallacher | Tiger Woods |
| Sandy Lyle | Wales |
| Bradley Neil | Jamie Donaldson |
| South Africa | Ian Woosnam |
| Tim Clark | |
| Ernie Els | |
| Branden Grace | |
| Trevor Immelman | |
| Louis Oosthuizen | |
| Charl Schwartzel | |
from SBNation.com - All Posts http://ift.tt/1EmNqRD
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