Why Augusta Nationwide gave 2 execs particular invites to the Masters

The 2025 Masters area shall be no less than 2 names longer in 2025.

Earlier this week, Augusta Nationwide introduced it prolonged particular invites to 2 up-and-coming professional golfers, LIV Golf’s Joaquin Niemann and the PGA Tour’s Nicolai Hojgaard, to compete within the 2025 version of golf’s first main.

After all, that is the time of 12 months for Masters invites. Augusta Nationwide distributes its much-anticipated inexperienced letters within the mail across the holidays, securing a lot of the sector earlier than the remainder of the golf world has rung within the new 12 months. However Niemann and Hojgaard have been notable additions as a result of they weren’t anticipated gamers within the area, having not certified beneath any of the Masters’ preexisting standards for event invitations.

And the way might Hojgaard and Niemann make it into the sector, you ask? Nicely, as a result of the Masters is an invitational, which means Augusta Nationwide can select who it needs to ask at its personal leisure, even when these gamers didn’t make it beneath the Masters’ set standards for event entrants.

Discuss of particular invites has by no means been significantly international to the Masters, however it has grown louder lately as LIV Golf has burst onto the scene, upsetting the pure order of golf’s “world rankings” and the coveted main championship slots they supply.

Previously, gamers like Niemann, who performs for LIV’s Torque GC, might need gotten into the Masters by advantage of victories on the PGA Tour or a world rating excessive sufficient to land an OWGR exemption. Now, although, with LIV not receiving World Rating Factors or automated main bids for winners, nearly all of LIV’s gamers earn invites into the Masters by way of exemptions afford to previous main champions. That doesn’t assist a participant like Niemann, a 26-year-old who’s winless in his main championship profession however who, most within the golf world agree, has the aggressive pedigree to compete on the largest levels.

This has led Niemann to compete year-round in OWGR-certified occasions and qualifiers throughout the globe along with his LIV schedule with the hope that such begins would enhance his resume for main championship area inclusion. These efforts labored in 2024, when Niemann was invited on an equivalent particular exemption into the Masters, and likewise earned invitations to the PGA Championship and Open.

“In assist of Augusta Nationwide’s efforts to develop curiosity in golf globally, deserving worldwide gamers not in any other case certified have been invited all through the Event’s historical past,” Augusta Nationwide chairman Fred Ridley stated in a put up asserting the choice. “The custom continues as we welcome Nicolai and Joaquin again to the Masters, as each gamers have showcased their expertise whereas competing around the globe. We sit up for their arrival this April.”

Now, in ’25, he shall be joined by Hojgaard, a younger PGA Tour/DP World Tour professional and promising former Ryder Cupper whose 2024 season left him on the skin wanting in at a Masters exemption. The 2025 Masters tees off at Augusta Nationwide on Thurs., April 10, 2025.