Why Augusta National gave 2 pros special invitations to the Masters

The 2025 Masters field will be at least 2 names longer in 2025.

Earlier this week, Augusta National announced it extended special invitations to two up-and-coming pro golfers, LIV Golf’s Joaquin Niemann and the PGA Tour’s Nicolai Hojgaard, to compete in the 2025 edition of golf’s first major.

Of course, this is the time of year for Masters invitations. Augusta National distributes its much-anticipated green letters in the mail around the holidays, securing much of the field before the rest of the golf world has rung in the new year. But Niemann and Hojgaard were notable additions because they weren’t expected players in the field, having not qualified under any of the Masters’ preexisting criteria for tournament invites.

And how could Hojgaard and Niemann make it into the field, you ask? Well, because the Masters is an invitational, meaning Augusta National can choose who it wishes to invite at its own leisure, even if those players didn’t make it under the Masters’ set criteria for tournament entrants.

Talk of special invitations has never been particularly foreign to the Masters, but it has grown louder in recent years as LIV Golf has burst onto the scene, upsetting the natural order of golf’s “world rankings” and the coveted major championship slots they provide.

In the past, players like Niemann, who plays for LIV’s Torque GC, might have gotten into the Masters by virtue of victories on the PGA Tour or a world ranking high enough to land an OWGR exemption. Now, though, with LIV not receiving World Ranking Points or automatic major bids for winners, the majority of LIV’s players earn invitations into the Masters through exemptions afford to past major champions. That doesn’t help a player like Niemann, a 26-year-old who is winless in his major championship career but who, most in the golf world agree, has the competitive pedigree to compete on the biggest stages.

This has led Niemann to compete year-round in OWGR-certified events and qualifiers across the globe in addition to his LIV schedule with the hope that such starts would boost his resume for major championship field inclusion. Those efforts worked in 2024, when Niemann was invited on an identical special exemption into the Masters, and also earned invites to the PGA Championship and Open.

“In support of Augusta National’s efforts to develop interest in golf globally, deserving international players not otherwise qualified have been invited throughout the Tournament’s history,” Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley said in a post announcing the decision. “The tradition continues as we welcome Nicolai and Joaquin back to the Masters, as both players have showcased their talent while competing around the world. We look forward to their arrival this April.”

Now, in ’25, he will be joined by Hojgaard, a young PGA Tour/DP World Tour pro and promising former Ryder Cupper whose 2024 season left him on the outside looking in at a Masters exemption. The 2025 Masters tees off at Augusta National on Thurs., April 10, 2025.