The Masters field is decided solely at the invitation of host Augusta National Golf Club. The club determines who gets invited to the year's first major with the help of 19 categories, ranging from past winners, who are invited to play as long as they'd like, to the winners and high finishers from other big amateur and pro tournaments from around the world, to players who qualify based on their world ranking.
With the Masters just a few weeks away, there's little time to qualify for the field. After the Valero Texas Open, the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking who have not otherwise earned an invitation get a spot in the field. The winner of the next week's Shell Houston Open can get in, too, if they're not already exempt.
Those potential outliers in mined, here who is in the 2015 Masters field already and how they qualified:
- Former winners of The Masters -- Adam Scott, Bubba Watson, Charl Schwartzel, Phil Mickelson, Angel Cabrera, Trevor Immelman, Zach Johnson, Tiger Woods, Mike Weir, Vijay Singh, Jose Maria Olazabal, Mark O'Meara, Ben Crenshaw, Bernhard Langer, Fred Couples, Ian Woosnam, Sandy Lyle, Larry Mize, Craig Stadler, Tom Watson
- Winners of the last five U.S. Opens -- Martin Kaymer, Justin Rose, Webb Simpson, Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell
- Winners of the last five British Opens -- Ernie Els, Darren Clarke, Louis Oosthuizen
- Winners of the last five PGA Championships -- Jason Dufner, Keegan Bradley
- Winners of the last three Players Championships -- Matt Kuchar
- Winner and runner-up from the last U.S. Amateur Championship -- Gunn Yang, Corey Conners
- Winner of the last British Amateur Championship -- Bradley Neil
- Winner of the last Asian Amateur Championship -- Antonio Murdaca
- Winner of the last Latin America Amateur Championship -- Matias Dominguez
- Winner of the last U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship -- Byron Meth
- Winner of the last U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship -- Scott Harvey
- The top 12 finishers (including ties) from last year's Masters tournament -- Jonas Blixt, Jordan Spieth, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Rickie Fowler, Lee Westwood, Jimmy Walker, John Senden, Kevin Stadler, Thomas Bjorn
- The top 4 finishers (including ties), from last year's U.S. Open -- Erik Compton, Keegan Bradley, Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Henrik Stenson
- The top 4 finishers (including ties) from last year's British Open -- Jim Furyk, Sergio Garcia
- The top 4 finishers (including ties) from last year's PGA Championship -- All already qualified under prior criteria.
- Full PGA Tour event winners since 2014 Masters -- Seung-yul Noh, J.B. Holmes, Brendon Todd, Hideki Matsuyama, Ben Crane, Kevin Streelman, Brian Harman, Tim Clark, Camilo Villegas, Hunter Mahan, Chris Kirk, Billy Horschel, Sang-moon Bae, Ben Martin, Robert Streb, Ryan Moore, Charley Hoffman, Brandt Snedeker, James Hahn, Padraig Harrington, Matt Every
- All players who qualified for last year's Tour Championship -- Ryan Palmer, Bill Haas, Russell Henley, Cameron Tringale, Patrick Reed, Gary Woodland, Kevin Na, Morgan Hoffmann, Geoff Ogilvy
- The Top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking at the end of 2014 -- Victor Dubuisson, Joost Luiten, Jamie Donaldson, Luke Donald, Stephen Gallacher, Thongchai Jaidee, Steve Stricker, Mikko Ilonen, Shane Lowry, Danny Willett
- The Top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking published after the Valero Texas Open -- Anirban Lahiri, Paul Casey, Branden Grace, Bernd Wiesberger
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