View of the clubhouse before the start of a practice round prior to the 2011 Masters (AFP)
Augusta National Golf Club will consider ways to reduce the field for the Masters after 99 players, the largest starting lineup in 45 years, booked their berths in the 75th Masters.
Augusta National Golf Club will consider ways to reduce the field for the Masters after 99 players, the largest starting lineup in 45 years, booked their berths in the 75th Masters.
Augusta National chairman Billy Payne said Wednesday on the eve of the annual start to the major golf season that the Masters has nearly reached the maximum number of players it can handle.`
"It's borderline to present the kind of competition we want," Payne said. "We say every year in response to that question that we look and study the qualifications, which we do, but we're really going to look at it this year.
"There's a maximum number of competitors for which we can give the experience that we want them to have and do it in a way that is manageable. The hundred pushes that limit quite significantly."
This year's field of 99, including 10 players who qualified only by winning US PGA events over the past 12 months, ranks fourth on the all-time Masters list behind the record 109 in 1962, 103 in 1966 and 101 in 1957.
The Masters had 96 starters the previous two years.
Augusta National competition committee chairman Fred Ridley has the task of looking at options for containing the size of the Masters field.
"We are getting pretty close to the maximum. We don't have a lot of daylight after that last group finishes," Ridley said. "We will make adjustments if we think it's necessary."
A bid to put an age limit on older past champions competing in the event was poorly received when attempted by a previous group of leaders, irking elderly past winners who felt they were being pressured into not playing.
Invitations were recently reinstated to most PGA event winners and this year brought twice the typical number of qualifiers.
The qualifying list was tweaked in recent years to ensure top players in the world golf rankings would be invited.
One area where Payne said Augusta National does not plan to weaken is its commitment to amateur players, including the Asian Amateur Championship winner.
"Including and embracing amateurs as an important component... is our legacy," Payne said.
The idea of adding African or South American amateur events where the winner qualifies for the Masters is not in the plans.
"We are a long way from that I think," Payne said.
© 2011 AFP/sid
