Augusta National Golf Club made a big change to how it invites people to the Masters Tournament. Starting in 2026, the club will invite the winners of six major national open championships from around the world. The decision, which was done with the R&A, is meant to make the Masters more international and provide top players from a wide range of global tours a chance to shine.
The winners of the Scottish Open, Spanish Open, Japan Open, Hong Kong Open, Australian Open, and South African Open will all be able to use the new invitation system. The R&A and we have a common objective for this project. The R&A already uses many of these same tournaments to qualify players for The Open Championship through its “Open Qualifying Series.”
Augusta National is also changing its qualification rules because of this change. Before, the winners of the seven FedEx Fall tournaments on the PGA Tour got a spot in the Masters if they hadn’t already qualified. You won’t be able to get that automated invitation anymore. The Procore Championship, Sanderson Farms Championship, Baycurrent Classic, Bank of Utah Championship, World Wide Technology Championship, Butterfield Bermuda Championship, and RSM Classic are all tournaments that are affected.
Fred Ridley, who is in charge of Augusta National and the Masters, stressed how important this change is. Ridley remarked, “The Masters Tournament has known for a long time how important it is to have international representation among its invitees.” “We, together with the R&A, are both dedicated to the game around the world… We hope this official recognition brings a lot of attention to these players and the events they will be playing in at the Masters and The Open next year.
Mark Darbon, the R&A’s CEO, agreed, saying that the cooperation will give players all around the world “an outstanding opportunity to qualify.”
The new qualification road now includes national opens that are part of the Asian Tour, Japan Golf Tour, Sunshine Tour, PGA Tour of Australasia, and European Tour.
One fascinating side effect of this choice is that LIV Golf League players might be able to qualify for the Masters. They can’t play on the PGA Tour, therefore their main way to get to the Masters is usually through special invitations. A LIV golfer might get an invitation by winning one of these six national opens under this new rule. For example, Joaquin Niemann from Chile was invited to the Masters the last two years even though he was a LIV player. This was partly because he did well in international events.
The 90th Masters will take place from April 9 to 12, 2026, and the 154th Open will take place from July 16 to 19 at Royal Birkdale in England.