2024 Major Championship Picture Begins To Take Shape
24 Aug,2023

By Tim Liotta


Championships

2024 Major Championship Picture Begins To Take Shape

Each year, filling the fields for the major championships is a slow, evolutionary process that is moved along by the calendar. And we are right at the beginning of this process for the 2024 renewals of golf's four biggest events. 

How does this work?

Entry into the Masters Tournament is by invitation, which are earned through a list of qualifications. The PGA Championship has a lists of qualification criteria for berths in its field, while the U.S. Open and the Open Championships list criteria for exemption from having to qualify for their championships.  

The first big qualifying/exemption event for the 2024 major championships occured Sunday when the PGA Tour playoffs decided the 30 players who would play in this week's Tour Championship in Atlanta. 

That's because the Masters, U.S. Open, and the Open Championship each list as a qualifier or exemption into their tournament fields the list of 30 players who make up the field for the preceding year's Tour Championship. 

So, in addition for the opportunity to chase the $18 million prize that goes with winning the FedEx Cup, the following players each earned opportunities to play in the 2024 Masters, U.S. Open and Open Championship (with their place in the FedEx standings):

Keegan Bradley (13), Sam Burns (26), Patrick Cantlay (7), Wyndham Clark (9), Corey Connors (19), Jason Day (25), Tony Finau (18), Matt Fitzpatrick (10), Tommy Fleetwood (11), Rickie Fowler (14), Lucas Glover (5), Emiliano Grillo (27), Brian Harman (8), Tyrrell Hatton (28), Russell Henley (12), Max Homa (6), Viktor Hovland (2), Sunjae Im (17), Si Woo Kim (20), Tom Kim (16), Rory McIlroy (3), Taylor Moore (21), Collin Morikawa (24), Jon Rahm (4), Xander Schauffele (15), Scottie Scheffler (1), Adam Schenk (23), Jordan Spieth (29), Sepp Straka (30) and Nick Taylor (22). 

With the U.S. Open, PGA Championship and the Open Championship each expecting fields of 156, and the Masters Tournament winding up with a field of between 80 and 95 players, there will be somewhere between 545 and 560 total berths available. Obviously, the top players will fill four apiece, one in each championship.

Here is a list (based on our research) of the top players according to the Official World Golf Ranking, and the major championships each appears to have qualified for or are exempt from qualifying for - which is a long way of saying they will be in the tournament: 

  2024 EXEMPTIONS          
  NAME COUNTRY MASTERS PGA US OPEN OPEN CH
1 Scottie Scheffler United States QUALIFIED QUALIFIED EXEMPT EXEMPT
2 Rory McIlroy Northern Ireland QUALIFIED QUALIFIED EXEMPT EXEMPT
3 Jon Rahm Spain QUALIFIED QUALIFIED EXEMPT EXEMPT
4 Patrick Cantlay United States QUALIFIED QUALIFIED EXEMPT EXEMPT
5 Viktor Hovland Norway QUALIFIED   EXEMPT EXEMPT
6 Xander Schauffele United States QUALIFIED   EXEMPT EXEMPT
7 Max Homa United States QUALIFIED   EXEMPT EXEMPT
8 Matt Fitzpatrick England QUALIFIED QUALIFIED EXEMPT EXEMPT
9 Brian Harman United States QUALIFIED QUALIFIED EXEMPT EXEMPT
10 Cameron Smith Australia QUALIFIED QUALIFIED EXEMPT EXEMPT
11 Wyndham Clark United States QUALIFIED QUALIFIED EXEMPT EXEMPT
12 Jordan Spieth United States QUALIFIED QUALIFIED EXEMPT EXEMPT
13 Brooks Koepka United States QUALIFIED QUALIFIED EXEMPT EXEMPT
14 Tyrrell Hatton England QUALIFIED   EXEMPT EXEMPT
15 Tommy Fleetwood England QUALIFIED   EXEMPT EXEMPT
16 Tom Kim Korea; Republic of QUALIFIED   EXEMPT EXEMPT
17 Cameron Young United States QUALIFIED      
18 Keegan Bradley United States QUALIFIED QUALIFIED EXEMPT EXEMPT
19 Tony Finau United States QUALIFIED   EXEMPT EXEMPT
20 Collin Morikawa United States QUALIFIED QUALIFIED EXEMPT EXEMPT
21 Will Zalatoris United States        
22 Sam Burns United States QUALIFIED   EXEMPT EXEMPT
23 Jason Day Australia QUALIFIED   EXEMPT EXEMPT
24 Sepp Straka Austria QUALIFIED QUALIFIED EXEMPT EXEMPT
25 Rickie Fowler United States QUALIFIED QUALIFIED EXEMPT EXEMPT
26 Justin Thomas United States QUALIFIED QUALIFIED EXEMPT EXEMPT
27 Sungjae Im Korea; Republic of QUALIFIED   EXEMPT EXEMPT
28 Russell Henley United States QUALIFIED   EXEMPT EXEMPT
29 Kurt Kitayama United States QUALIFIED QUALIFIED    
30 Lucas Glover United States QUALIFIED QUALIFIED EXEMPT EXEMPT
31 Corey Conners Canada QUALIFIED QUALIFIED EXEMPT EXEMPT
32 Denny McCarthy United States        
32 Justin Rose England   QUALIFIED    
34 Sahith Theegala United States        
35 Emiliano Grillo Argentina QUALIFIED QUALIFIED EXEMPT EXEMPT
36 Shane Lowry Ireland QUALIFIED QUALIFIED EXEMPT EXEMPT
37 Hideki Matsuyama Japan QUALIFIED QUALIFIED EXEMPT EXEMPT
38 Si Woo Kim Korea; Republic of QUALIFIED   EXEMPT EXEMPT
39 Harris English United States     EXEMPT  
40 J.T. Poston United States