The field for the Masters has swelled by five.
Thomas Pieters (No. 34), Harold Varner III (40), Seamus Power (41), Russell Henley (42) and Cameron Young (47) are the latest to punch their ticket down Magnolia Lane to play in the first men’s major next week. That stretches the smallest field of the four majors to 91 players, and still includes Tiger Woods on the list of past champions planning to play.
All five newcomers to the field qualified as a result of being in the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking as of March 28.
Pieters and Varner didn’t have to sweat it out last week at the Dell Technologies Match Play as they had become virtual locks thanks in part to their respective victories in Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia earlier this year. For Varner, 31, it will be his first appearance in the Masters.
The same can be said for Power, who won last summer and has continued a meteoric rise this season that included making the quarterfinals in Austin. Young, 24, is a graduate of the Korn Ferry Tour and used strong performances at the Sanderson Farms Championship in October and a runner-up finish at the Genesis Invitational to surge into the top 50.
Henley, who last won on Tour in 2017, is making his fifth Masters start after climbing inside the top 50 on the back of losing a sudden-death playoff to Hideki Matsuyama at the Sony Open in Hawaii.
The hard-luck losers are Cameron Tringale (No. 52), Richard Bland (53) and Alex Noren (57), who were left on the outside looking in. Bland, who lost to Dustin Johnson in the Round of 16 at the Match Play, tweeted his disappointment.
Unfortunately 3 places short
#53. Need a win this week at The Texas Valero or Augusta to look on me kindly
#masters
— Richard Bland (@blandy73) March 27, 2022
There’s still one more automatic invite to the Masters on the line this week. The winner of the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio, if not already qualified, will be the last man in the field. The Masters begins April 7.