Alex Noren, Michael Kim and Min Woo Lee among 13 players to earn 2026 Masters invites via OWGR status
The field for the first major championship of 2026 has reached 86 players
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2 min read
The field for the 2026 Masters has reached 86 players with those finishing the 2025 calendar year inside the top 50 of the Official World Golf Rankings earning invitations into the first major championship of the 2026 season. A total of 13 players used this pathway to secure their tee times at Augusta National Golf Club in early April with Ryan Gerard eking in at the 11th hour by finishing runner-up at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open on the DP World Tour.
Gerard started the week No. 57 in the OWGR and propelled himself to No. 46 with his playoff loss to join the following players to earn their place at Augusta National. He needed at least a fourth-place finish to accumulate the necessary amount of points. According to projections for week 52 of the world rankings, Sam Stevens will be the last man in at No. 50, just ahead of Canadian Taylor Pendrith, who will be the last man out.
Players to earn Masters invitations (week 51 rankings)
| Official World Golf Ranking | Player | Masters appearances |
|---|---|---|
11 | Alex Noren | 4 |
23 | Aaron Rai | 1 |
31 | Kristoffer Reitan | 0 |
32 | Max Greyserman | 1 |
34 | Michael Brennan | 0 |
36 | Michael Kim | 2 |
38 | Sami Valimaki | 0 |
40 | Rasmus Hojgaard | 1 |
43 | Min Woo Lee | 4 |
46 | Ryan Gerard | 0 |
47 | Si Woo Kim | 8 |
48 | Johnny Keefer | 0 |
50 | Sam Stevens | 0 |
Augusta National altered the invitation criteria for the 2026 Masters to no longer include winners of FedEx Cup Fall events. This ultimately did not matter in the cases of Michael Brennan and Sami Valimaki, but the rest of the winners from the PGA Tour's fall series -- who had not already earned their spots in the field -- faced no such luck.
In lieu of these winners, champions from national opens around the world were granted invitations. Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen won the Australian Open, Tom McKibbin won the Hong Kong Open and Marco Penge proved victorious at the Spanish Open to qualify for the field.
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Brennan has shot up the OWGR boards thanks to his play on PGA Tour Americas and his win at the Bank of Utah Championship, where he earned full-time playing privileges on the PGA Tour. He was set to play on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2026 before his victory — the circuit which Keefer cleaned up on in 2025, so much so that he climbed inside the top 50 of the OWGR.
Both of these players will be making their Masters debuts, while Si Woo Kim is the most experienced player to earn his invitation through world rankings thanks to his top-five finish at the Australian Open. When Kim sticks a peg in the ground at Augusta National in April, it will mark his ninth start in the tournament.
The field of 86 players is still inclusive of Tiger Woods, who is set to turn 50 before the calendar flips to 2026. The 15-time major champion did not play in a single tournament in 2025 due to a ruptured achilles and a seventh back surgery. He noted at the Hero World Challenge that his recovery has taken longer than he has wished, and that he was recently cleared to chip and putt.
