The first weekend of April, when the magnolia trees and azaleas in the South are in full bloom, signals the annual Masters Tournament of professional golf. Every player on the PGA Tour hopes to come to Augusta, Georgia to vie for the honor of wearing the coveted "green jacket," which goes to the winner each year.
The course, Augusta National, is one of the most beautiful yet diabolically difficult golf courses in the world, with tight angular fairways, sloping greens, and punishing rough. The best names in golf have won the tournament: legends such as Gene Sarazen, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus.
Once again, this weekend, all eyes in the golfing world will be on Augusta. However, in recent years, some attention has been drawn away from the golf and focused instead on the qualifying system used by Augusta officials in order to choose who is worthy enough to compete in the tournament.
In the three other major tournaments in men's golf, the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship, the qualifying system is generally inviting, with many opportunities to qualify. The three tournaments reward winners of past majors, players that are high on the money list, or who have proven their skill through the world ranking.
If players cannot meet these criteria, they can enter the tournament through qualifying tournaments, which are usually held a week or two before the big tournament. And in the PGA Championship, all members of the PGA are eligible, which means that Joe Schmoe pro-golfer down at your local country club can make the big tournament through qualifying tournaments.
However, at the Masters, to qualify for the tournament you must pass through a gauntlet of specifications. All past Masters winners are eligible, though this is obviously an exclusive club that is difficult to break into.
The other qualifications are the same as those of the other three majors, but in the Masters, you are not eligible if you won a tournament last year in pro play (unlike in the other three). In 2000, four players who had won tournaments in 1999 were unable to play at the Masters because they could not meet the other specifications. And there are no qualifying rounds for the Masters; if you cannot meet the narrow qualifications, then it's tough luck for you.
Obviously, this means that only the best pros and past Masters winners are eligible for this tournament. But in some instances, past Masters winners can easily take away a spot from a younger, more deserving golfer who has a chance of winning the tournament. For example, 1968 Masters winner Bob Goalby can play in the tournament if he wants, but Curtis Strange, a two-time U.S. Open winner, and John Daly, the former British Open and PGA Championship winner, are not allowed to play.
I am not advocating the prevention of golfing legends from playing in one of the greatest golf tournaments ever; by all means, let Palmer (four-time Masters winner) and Nicklaus (the greatest Masters champion ever, with six jackets) play and compete against their golfing descendants among Rae's Creek, Eisenhower Tree and the pink azaleas. But I am arguing that the qualification system prevents current professionals, some of whom have had great success on the PGA Tour, from playing in the tournament.
On any given Sunday (different sport, same concept), a relative unknown can walk away a winner; witness 1987, when Augusta native Larry Mize sunk a 50-yard pitch shot to beat Greg Norman and Seve Ballesteros on the 73rd hole on Sunday. Or in 1991 when dimiinutive Irishman Ian Woosnam, never a Nicklausesque figure on the PGA Tour won by threeThis Sunday, who knows; someone like Stewart Cink can outshoot Tiger Woods on the last day of competition to take home the green jacket.
Who will win this weekend at Augusta? No one knows, although Tiger Woods would be a solid bet. But I do know that with each year that this method of qualification runs its course, more and more deserving golfers will miss out on playing in the greatest golf tournament on one of the greatest golf courses in the world.
Heroic underdog stories, like that of Greg Puga may eventually go the way of the dodo with this kind of invitation system. Puga is a former caddy for James Garner and Joe Pesci at Bel Air Country Club who qualified for the Masters by winning the U.S. Mid-Amateur tournament last year.
Despite this lone cinderella-in-waiting, you can expect a marquee name to win this year and every year from now on. Is this the kind of mindless exclusion that Bobby Jones, founder of Augusta National and lifetime amateur golfer, would have wanted?
