[PHOTO: J.D. Cuban]

There are 138 days and counting—and yes, we are most certainly counting—until the first round of the 2024 Masters. Official invitations to the year’s first men’s major championship don’t start hitting letterboxes for another few weeks, but as the holiday season draws nearer, we got into the merry mood of celebrating who will be among the lucky players teeing it up at Augusta National come April.

To do so, we took the qualifying criteria that Masters chairman Fred Ridley outlined during his 2023 pre-tournament press conference more than seven months ago. At that time, Ridley announced the addition of the NCAA D-I individual champion as an invitee (ironically 2023 winner Fred Biondi turned pro, so won’t be playing), clarified that only those who qualified for the Tour Championship and were eligible to compete the PGA Tour’s final FedEx Cup event also receive Masters invites (the Talor Gooch loophole being closed), and explained that winners of the FedEx Cup Fall Series events would also earn their way into the field. More recently, Ridley made it sound unlikely that the Masters would be adding a special criteria for a handful of LIV Golf members to have direct entry into the event.

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So with that, here’s the way things seem to have shaken out so far in terms of players in the field, 81 amateurs and pros that include 16 past champions who are invited but are not expected to compete (listed with an asterisk), meaning an effective field of 65 for the time being. (You’ll see qualifying criteria at the bottom of the article.)

Tommy Aaron, 1*

Ludvig Aberg, 17 (RSM Classic)

Keegan Bradley, 17 (Travelers), 18

Jack Burke Jnr, 1*

Angel Cabrera, 1

Patrick Cantlay, 18

Wyndham Clark, 2, 14, 17 (Wells Fargo, U.S. Open), 18

Corey Conners , 18

Charles Coody, 1*

Fred Couples, 1

Ben Crenshaw, 1*

Cam Davis, 16

Jason Day, 17 (Byron Nelson)

Bryson DeChambeau, 2, 16

Nick Dunlap (a), 7

Nick Faldo, 1*

Tony Finau, 17 (Mexico Open), 18

Matt Fitzpatrick, 2, 13, 17 (RBC Heritage), 18

Tommy Fleetwood, 18

Raymond Floyd, 1*

Rickie Fowler, 17 (Rocket Mortgage), 18

Sergio Garcia, 1

Lucas Glover, 17 (Wyndham, St Jude), 18

Emiliano Grillo, 17 (Colonial), 18

Stewart Hagestad (a), 11

Brian Harman, 3, 17 (The Open), 18

Tyrrell Hatton, 18

Russell Henley, 13, 18

Lee Hodges, 17 (3M Open)

Max Homa, 18

Viktor Hovland, 13, 16, 17 (Memorial, BMW), 18

Sungjae Im, 18

Trevor Immelman, 1*

Dustin Johnson, 1

Zach Johnson, 1

Tom Kim, 15, 17 (Shriners), 18

Si Woo Kim, 18

Kurt Kitayama, 16

Brooks Koepka, 4, 13, 16, 17

Christo Lamprechet (a), 8

Bernhard Langer, 1

Luke List, 17 (Sanderson Farms)

Sandy Lyle, 1*

Hideki Matsuyama, 1, 3

Rory McIlroy, 13, 17 (Scottish Open), 18

Phil Mickelson, 1, 4, 13

Larry Mize, 1*

Taylor Moore, 18

Collin Morikawa, 3, 4, 13

Jack Nicklaus, 1*

Mark O’Meara, 1*

Jose Maria Olazabal, 1

Gary Player, 1*

Jon Rahm, 1, 2, 15, 17 (Masters), 18

Patrick Reed, 1, 13

Xander Schauffele, 18

Scottie Scheffler, 1, 5, 13, 14, 16, 18

Adam Schenk, 18

Charl Schwartzel, 1

Adam Scott, 1

Neal Shipley (a), 7

Vijay Singh, 1

Cameron Smith, 3, 5, 14

Jordan Spieth, 1, 13, 18

Craig Stadler, 1*

Sepp Straka, 15, 17 (John Deere), 18

Jasper Stubbs (a), 9