Masters to change entry rules for 2008

The Masters will modify its qualifications starting next year to include winners of PGA Tour events up to the season-ending Tour Championship, Augusta National Chairman Billy Payne announced on Wednesday.

Other changes include inviting all players from the previous year's Tour Championship and the 30 leaders on the final official PGA Tour money list for the previous calendar year, down from the current top 40 now invited.

The previous qualification of the 10 leaders on the PGA Tour money list published during the week prior to the current Masters Tournament has been eliminated.

"We missed the excitement of the winner of a PGA Tour event immediately qualifying for the Masters," said Payne, who took over as Augusta National Chairman last May following the nine-year reign of Hootie Johnson.

PGA Tour winners had qualified automatically for the Masters from 1972-1999. The 30 leaders on the PGA money list had been used from 1983-99 when it was increased by 10 spots for the 2000 event.

After recent major alterations that lengthened the famed course, Payne said no substantive changes were being contemplated.

Payne sidestepped the controversial issue routinely raised at the Masters in recent years of whether the exclusive golf club intended to admit a female member for the first time.

"All members and membership are subject to the private deliberations of the members and other than that, sir, I'm simply not going to talk about it," said Payne, a Georgia native who was head of the organizing committee for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Women's activist Martha Burk launched an unsuccessful campaign in 2002 to pressure the club to admit female members, and some observers believed that Payne might be the man to work behind the scenes to usher in change at Augusta.

Payne, the sixth chairman in the history of the club started by legendary golfer Bobby Jones, said he would adhere to the same mission as his predecessors.

"I know of the obligation, indeed, the responsibility, to do the best that I could do to make the experience all the more enjoyable for the members; to enhance and increase the pride they feel when they welcome the world to visit us once a year; and to continue to make the Masters the premiere, best organized sporting event in the world," he said.

April 5, 2007