After the 2017 Masters field size lingered in the 80s for a while, it has now ballooned up to 94 with one more spot left to potentially be filled at this week’s Shell Houston Open.
Following the WGC-Dell Match Play last week in Austin, Texas, Ross Fisher, Tommy Fleetwood, Hideto Tanihara and Jeunghun Wang are all inside the top 50 of the Official World Golf Rankings and thus will be invited to Augusta National. For Wang and Fleetwood, this will be the first Masters appearance.
This foursome brought the field from 90 to 94. The field size remained in the 80s before Marc Leishman and Adam Hadwin both won tournaments in March and got in (all primary PGA Tour event winners between last year’s Masters and this year’s get in the field).
If the winner of this week’s Houston Open is not already in the Masters, he gets in with a victory. This happened last year when Jim Herman took home the hardware in Houston and had to readjust his travel plans to include Magnolia Lane.
The elephant in the room is whether Tiger Woods will play. He is currently included in the field size of 94, but it remains to be seen whether he will actually tee it up. he said last week he was trying everything to be ready for the event.
Ian Woosnam, who it was presumed retired from the event last year, announced in the fall that he was going to continue playing. The Masters field has not reached triple digits since it was at 103 in 1966.
