The Match Play finishes Rickie Fowler, others need to qualify for Masters via OWGR

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It’s one of the most interesting Official World Golf Ranking updates of the year; we’re a week out from the top-50 cutoff for the Masters Tournament, and there are some big names on the outside looking in.

The field for the year’s first major at Augusta National, currently 85 players deep, is almost set. While most have already earned their invites, three opportunities are available: win this week’s WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, win next week’s Valero Texas Open or be among the top 50 in the OWGR come March 27.

So let’s take a look at the world-rankings bubble (excluding the guys who have already qualified via other avenues):

Currently sitting at Nos. 43, 45 and 47 in the OWGR, respectively, Harris English, Keith Mitchell and Min Woo Lee are in pretty good shape to be at Augusta National.

Unfortunately for the guys on the other side of the bubble, things aren’t looking as optimistic.

Nos. 51-55 in the world ranking are already in, with the next guy out being Lucas Herbert at No. 56.

Here are the guys from 56-79 who have yet to qualify for the Masters and are in the field at Austin Country Club, plus their minimum finishes needed to have a chance at moving into the top 50 and punch their tickets to Augusta National:

56. Lucas Herbert, Round of 16
57. Taylor Montgomery, quarterfinals
58. Denny McCarthy, quarterfinals
59. Rickie Fowler, quarterfinals
61. Victor Perez, semifinals
63. Adam Hadwin, semifinals
64. Davis Riley, semifinals
67. Nick Taylor, semifinals
68. Andrew Putnam, third
69. Davis Thompson, semifinals
70. Maverick McNealy, third
71. Matt Kuchar, third
72. Christiaan Bezuidenhout, third
73. Brendon Todd, can’t reach top 50
75. J.J. Spaun, third
77. Ben Griffin, third
78. Justin Suh, runner-up
79. Cam Davis, third

Approximately 52.3 points will go to the winner, according to Twitter’s resident OWGR guru, Nosferatu, meaning if any of the above players won, they’d jump into the top 30.

LIV defectors continue to fall

In other OWGR news, four notable LIV defectors have dropped out of the top 100 in the past couple of weeks.

Marc Leishman (95 to 101), Paul Casey (94 to 102), and Louis Oosthuizen (100 to 104) are now on the outside looking in as LIV Golf remains point-less despite its bid for world ranking points. Brooks Koepka also recently dropped out of the top 100 and currently sits at No. 106.

While Oosthuizen and Koepka have earned invites to Augusta, Leishman and Casey will not play this year.

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