Masters Qualifiers Named from World Golf Rankings


Based on the final 2010 World Golf Rankings, 13 players have qualified for the 2011 Masters. Among the group are only two Americans, Rickie Fowler and Sean O'Hair.

Since there are no more tournaments this year, the final rankings were released Monday. The Masters sends out automatic invites to players in the top 50. The criteria is mainly for international players who are not PGA Tour members and have fewer ways to qualify, such as winning a tour event or getting into the FedEx Cup finale.

O'Hair, who started the year ranked 15th, did not win a tournament in 2010 or reach the season-ending Tour Championship. He ended 2010 at No. 43, while Fowler, completing his first year on the PGA Tour, ended up at No. 28 thanks to two runner-up finishes.

The 11 other qualifiers include: England's Ross Fisher; Italian brothers Francesco and Edoardo Molinari; Spaniard Alvaro Quiros; and Swedes Peter Hanson and Robert Karlsson.

The others include the Japanese trio of Ryo Ishikawa, Yuta Ikeda and Hiroyuki Fujita; Korean Kim Kyung-tae; and South African Charl Schwartzel.

This brings to 92 the number of players who have qualified for the 2010 Masters, which has the smallest field of the four majors and prefers to keep its field at about 100. The event will be held April 7-10.