By: Colin Lacy

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

The azaleas are in full bloom. The towering pine and flowering dogwood trees are in pristine condition. That can only mean one thing…it’s time for the golf world to flock to Augusta, Ga for the 2024 Masters.

The 88^th playing of the Masters Tournament officially gets underway Thursday April 11^th and will hand out the coveted green jacket on Sunday at the conclusion of the final round for a “tradition unlike any other.”

The Masters is always the first of the four Major Championships in the golf world and is slated for the first full week in April each year.

The tournament that began in 1934 is considerably smaller (in terms of number of participants) than the other three championships because it’s an invitational event held by the Augusta National Golf Course.

There are 20 ways that a player can be invited to participate in the exclusive Masters Tournament. Any former Masters Champion has a lifetime invitation back to Augusta. Similarly, any champion of the other three major championships in the previous five years gets an automatic invitation to the field. Although 20 ways to qualify for the Masters may seem like a lot of ways to get in the field, it’s an elusive ticket.

Nineteen former Masters champions are expected to compete for the crown again in 2024 including Tiger Woods, Bubba Watson, Jordan Spieth, Scottie Scheffler, and 2023 champion Jon Rahm.

The 2020 Masters Champion Dustin Johnson set the Masters record with a -20 final card to win the only masters to not be played in April (had to be moved to November because of COVID-19).

Other former Masters Champions expected to be in the field for the 88^th playing are Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, and 2021 Champion Hideki Matsuyama.

Others that get in the field because of winning one of the other three major championships in the last five years include U.S. Open Champions Wyndham Clark, Bryson DeChambeau, Matt Fitzpatrick, and Gary Woodland. British Open Champions Brian Harman, Cam Smith, Collin Morikawa, and Shane Lowry will also tee it up in Augusta.

Finally, PGA Championship winners Brooks Koepka and Justin Thomas are expected to be in the field come April.

With less than 50 others that meet one of the 20 criteria to enter the tournament, some familiar names just make the cut.

Patrick Cantlay and Tommy Fleetwood enter the eligibility with the 18^th criteria point of qualifying for the 2023 Tour Championship.

Tony Finau and Rickie Fowler come into the mix with the 17^th criteria checked of “Individual winners of PGA Tour events that award a full-point allocation for the season-ending Tour Championship, from the 2023 Masters to the 2024 Masters (including fall 2023)”.

Other notable names include Rory McIlroy and Neal Shipley for various check marks.

After all the minutia to set the field, the whole golf world (and many outside the golf community) will flock to the small corner of Eastern Georgia called Augusta either by physically going down Bobby Jones Expressway, or via the televisions, computer screens, or courtesy of Westwood One Sports Radio.

However, if you take in the Masters tournament, it’s special, and it’s a big day on Sunday when you hear Jim Nantz sets the scene poetically in his 39^th Masters for CBS along with his colleague Verne Lundquist who announced that the 2024 Masters will be his 40^th and final Masters.

Just remember to tune in early on Sunday to hear Nantz describe the pink azaleas and beautifully sun-soaked skies and so on “….AT THE MASTERS.”