Michael Kim needs to make peace this week with Memorial Park to reach Augusta (Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)
This week’s Texas Children’s Houston Open marks the last week before the top-50 invitations are locked and loaded for the Masters when the Official World Golf Ranking gets posted on Monday, March 31.
Already secured are spots for Players runner-up J.J. Spaun, veteran Daniel Berger and Germany’s Stephan Jaeger. Still sweating a little (but likely in) at No. 48 is England’s Laurie Canter, who survived his dalliance with LIV Golf and came back to the good graces of the legacy circuits with his successes on the DP World Tour.
There are two players outside the top-50 bubble with decent chances of climbing into a Masters spot with good showings in Houston.
No. 52 Michael Kim has been on a relative tear all season as he’s climbed to the doorstep of qualifying for his second career start at Augusta. He inched up two places thanks to a T28 last week at the Valspar after making the cut on the number because Neal Shipley made a late bogey on Friday when a par would have knocked Kim out.
“When they say every shot counts, they really mean it on the pgatour,” Kim wrote on social media. “Thanks to Neal making a timely bogey on his last hole, I was able to put two solid rounds together and finish T-28th. This can be the difference between top 50 for signature events, a potential Masters invite for me, and in the short term 25 FedEx Cup points which is not nothing. The cut is such a big part of the pgatour. I actually hit my 7ft putt on my last hole Friday with pretty little care because I was pretty sure that +2 wasn’t going to make it. I’m sure there are players that got too aggressive on the last hole thinking they needed birdie and made bogey instead. Margins are incredibly thin on tour.
“I’m really running on fumes at this point haha. Back and neck isn’t feeling great and really ready for some time off. But! I still have one more chance at qualifying for the Masters. I’ll prob need a top 20 to get a spot. At this point, I’ll be happy with or without the week off but I want to give myself the opportunity.”
The margin is a little thicker this week for Kim than he thinks. According to OWGR guru Nosferatu (@VC606 on the twitterverse), Kim needs at least a top-50 finish this week at Memorial Park to reach No. 50 on Monday. That certainly seems reasonable for a guy who — outside of his three missed cuts in 2025 at Sony, Farmers and Players — has been T43 or much better in seven events. However, in the three times Kim has played the Houston event at Memorial Park, he’s gone MC in 2021, T47 in 2022 and T63 last year. So he’s going to need to play much better there this week.
“I’m not the biggest fan of the golf course but it’s time to make friends with it,” Kim wrote. “I wasn’t a huge fan of pga national but did well there so …”
No. 53 Ben Griffin was inside the top-50 only a few weeks ago, climbing as high as No. 48 after consecutive T4 finishes in the Mexico Open and Cognizant Classic. But he heads to Houston after consecutive missed cuts at the Players and Valspar championships and needs to right the ship in a relatively big way if he hopes to qualify for his first Masters. According to Nosferatu, Griffin needs at least a top-25 finish in Houston to reach No. 50. The good news is he’s made the cut both times he’s played Memorial Park, finishing T16 in 2022 and T36 last year.
The winner in Houston automatically gets in, of course, as does the winner of next week’s Valero Texas Open in San Antonio.
Through March 24, 2025
Here’s how the 91 players currently qualified to play in the 2025 Masters got into the field
# first-timers (20); * amateurs (5); Americans (46); Internationals (45); Seniors (7)
Masters Tournament Champions (Lifetime)
Angel Cabrera (1) – Argentina
Fred Couples (1)
Sergio Garcia (1) – Spain
Dustin Johnson (1)
Zach Johnson (1)
Bernhard Langer (1) – Germany
Hideki Matsuyama (1, 17, 18, 19) – Japan
Phil Mickelson (1, 4)
Jose Maria Olazabal (1) – Spain
Jon Rahm (1, 2, 19) – Spain
Patrick Reed (1, 13)
Scottie Scheffler (1, 5, 6, 13, 17, 18, 19)
Charl Schwartzel (1) – South Africa
Adam Scott (1, 18, 19) – Australia
Vijay Singh (1) – Fiji
Jordan Spieth (1)
Bubba Watson (1)
Mike Weir (1) – Canada
Danny Willett (1) – England
U.S. Open champions (Honorary, non-competing after 5 years)
Wyndham Clark (2, 18, 19) – through 2028
Bryson DeChambeau (2, 13, 19) – through 2029
Matthew Fitzpatrick (2, 19) – England – through 2027
British Open Champions (Honorary, non-competing after 5 years)
Brian Harman (3, 19) – through 2028
Collin Morikawa (3, 4, 13, 18, 19) – through 2026
Xander Schauffele (3, 4, 13, 18, 19) – through 2029
Cameron Smith (3, 5) – Australia – through 2027
PGA Champions (Honorary, non-competing after 5 years)
Brooks Koepka (4) – through 2028
Justin Thomas (4, 18, 19) – through 2027
The Players Championship Winners (3 years)
Rory McIlroy (5, 14, 17, 18, 19) – Northern Ireland – through 2027
Current Olympic Gold Medalist (for 2025)
—
Current U.S. Amateur champion (A, Honorary, non-competing after 1 year) and runner-up (B)
#*Jose Luis Ballester (7) – Spain
#*Noah Kent (7)
Current British Amateur Champion (Honorary, non-competing after 1 year)
Jacob Skov Olesen (Denmark) forfeited his spot by turning professional
Current Asia-Pacific Amateur Champion
Wenyi Ding (China) forfeited his spot by turning professional
Current Latin America Amateur Champion
#*Justin Hastings (10) – Cayman Islands
Current U.S. Mid-Amateur Champion
#*Evan Beck (11)
Current NCAA Individual Champion
#*Hiroshi Tai (12) – Singapore
First 12 players (including ties) in previous year’s Masters
Ludvig Åberg (13, 18, 19) – Sweden
Cam Davis (13, 17) – Australia
Tommy Fleetwood (13, 18, 19) – England
Tyrrell Hatton (13, 19) – England
Max Homa (13, 19)
Mattieu Pavon (13, 18, 19) – France
Adam Schenk (13)
Cameron Young (13, 19)
Will Zalatoris (13)
First 4 players (including ties) in previous year’s U.S. Open
Patrick Cantlay (14, 18, 19)
Tony Finau (14, 18, 19)
First 4 players (including ties) in previous year’s British Open
Billy Horschel (15, 18, 19)
#Thriston Lawrence (15, 19) – South Africa
Justin Rose (15, 19) – England
First 4 players (including ties) in previous year’s PGA Championship
#Thomas Detry (16) – Belgium
Viktor Hovland (16, 17, 18, 19) – Norway
Winners of non-opposite PGA Tour events from previous Masters to current Masters
Keegan Bradley (17, 18, 19)
#Rafael Campos (17) — Puerto Rico
#Brian Campbell (17)
#Nico Echavarria (17) — Colombia
Austin Eckroat (17, 19)
Harris English (17)
#Joe Highsmith (17)
Patton Kizzire (17)
Robert MacIntyre (17, 18, 19) – Scotland
#Matt McCarty (17, 19)
#Maverick McNealy (17, 19)
#Taylor Pendrith (17, 18, 19) – Canada
J.T. Poston (17, 19)
#Aaron Rai (17, 18, 19) – England
#Davis Riley (17)
Nick Taylor (17) – Canada
#Davis Thompson (17, 19)
Jhonattan Vegas (17) – Venezuela
#Kevin Yu (17) – Taiwan
Eligible qualifiers for previous year’s season-ending Tour Championship
Byeong Hun (Ben) An (18, 19) – South Korea
Christiaan Bezuidenhout (18) – South Africa
Akshay Bhatia (18, 19)
Sam Burns (18, 19)
Russell Henley (18, 19)
Tom Hoge (18)
Sungjae Im (18, 19) – South Korea
Chris Kirk (18)
Shane Lowry (18, 19) – Ireland
Sepp Straka (18, 19) – Austria
Sahith Theegala (18, 19)
Top 50 on final Official World Golf Ranking for previous calendar year
Corey Conners (19) – Canada
Jason Day (19) – Australia
Nick Dunlap (19)
Lucas Glover (19)
#Max Greyserman (19)
#Rasmus Højgaard (19) – Denmark
Tom Kim (19) – South Korea
Min Woo Lee (19) – Australia
Denny McCarthy (19)
Top 50 on Official World Golf Ranking published week prior to current Masters
TBD
The Masters Committee, at its discretion, also invites international players otherwise not qualified
Nicolai Højgaard – Denmark
Joaquin Niemann – Chile
