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Two more players have joined the field for this year’s Masters Tournament.
Augusta National Golf Club has announced that Kazuki Higa and Gordon Sargent have accepted invites to play in the opening men’s major of the year.
Both will be first-time Masters participants.
“The Masters Tournament prioritises opportunities to elevate both amateur and professional golf around the world,” said club chairman Fred Ridley.
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“Thus, we have extended invitations to two deserving players not otherwise qualified. Whether on the international stage or at the elite amateur level, each player has showcased their talent in the past year.
We look forward to hosting them at Augusta National in April.”
Higa, a 27-year-old from Japan, has six career wins on the Japan Golf Tour, with four of those victories occurring in 2022.
He finished first on the Japan Golf Tour’s Order of Merit last year, an achievement that 2021 Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama also earned in 2013. He is currently No.68 onthe Official World Golf Ranking.
A native of Birmingham, Alabama, Sargent is a sophomore at Vanderbilt University and the reigning NCAA Division I Men’s Individual Champion.
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The 19-year-old birdied the first hole of a four-way playoff last May to win, becoming the first freshman since 2007 to claim the individual title. He is ranked fourth on the World Amateur Golf Ranking and becomes the first amateur to accept a special invitation since Aaron Baddeley in 2000.
This brings the number of players invited to compete in The Masters to 80, with three qualification criteria still active: winner of the 2023 Latin America Amateur Championship; winners of upcoming PGA Tour events that award a full-point allocation for the season-ending Tour Championship; and the 50 leaders on the Official World Golf Ranking published during the week prior to the tournament.
The 2023 Masters Tournament takes place from April 6-9.
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