The Masters Golf Tournament, held every year in April in Augusta, Georgia, is one of four major tournaments on the PGA Tour. The Masters is the first of the majors and arguably the most prestigious, although many golfers would rank the U.S. Open as the most important tournament of the year. Golfers have to go through rigorous qualifications to play in the Masters, and winners are awarded the prestigious green jacket in addition to prize money for winning.
72-Hole Format
The Masters tournament plays a four-round, 72-hole tournament. This is nothing unusual because most tournaments on the PGA Tour use this format. However, the Masters was the first to use this way of determining its champion. Before the tournament's inception in 1934, most tournaments used match play or other formats, but the Masters was the first to use the four-round, 72-hole stroke-play format. That way of determining the championship never has changed.
Qualifications
Earning a spot in the Masters tournament requires a player to have achieved a high level of success on the professional tours around the world. The Masters has the smallest field of any of the majors, usually less than 100 players. Some of the qualifications include finishing in the top 30 of the previous year's PGA Tour money-winning list or the top 50 in the World Rankings. If you have won the Masters at any point in your career, you earn a lifetime invitation and if you have won one of the other major championships--the U.S. Open, the British Open or the PGA Championship in the past five years--you also earn an invitation. Winners of The Players Championship get an invitation to the Masters for three years, and the U.S. amateur champion and runner-up and the British amateur champion and runner-up earn invitations. So do the Asian amateur champion, U.S. amateur public links champion and U.S. mid-amateur champion. Other qualifiers include the first 16 players, including ties, in the previous year's Masters; the first eight players, including ties, in the previous year's U.S. Open; the first four players, including ties, in the previous year's British Open; and the first four players, including ties, in the previous year's PGA Championship tournament. The top 30 players on the final official PGA Tour money list for the previous calendar year earn invitations, as do winners of PGA Tour events that award a full-point allocation for the season-ending Tour Championship from the previous Masters to current Masters. Players who qualified for the previous year's season-ending Tour Championship earn a Masters invitation. The top 50 leaders on the final official World Golf Ranking from the previous calendar year also earn a spot as do the 50 leaders on the Official World Golf Ranking published during the week prior to the Masters.
Playoff Format
In case the Masters tournament is tied at the end of four rounds, the Masters has one of the most unique formats for deciding the championship. In the event of a tie, the players who are tied will tee off on the 18th hole in a sudden death format. If a player does not emerge as the winner on the 18th hole, the players will go back to the 10th hole for the next sudden-death hole. Players will then move between the 18th and 10th hole until one player is left as the champion.
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