Playing the Masters is by invitation only. Here’s how golfers get one.

Despite a missed putt on the 18th hole of the Texas Children’s Houston Open, Stephan Jaeger has nevertheless secured a ticket for the Augusta National Golf Club, where he will participate in the Masters tournament for the first time this week.

There are many ways to get an invite to the Masters, and Jaeger, 34, found one of them.

But first he missed a putt that would have clinched a victory over the former Masters champion Scottie Scheffler. Then Scheffler missed a shorter putt, forcing him to play with Jaeger.

In the end, what mattered was that Jaeger won the tournament, not how he did it. And with that he earned an invitation to the Masters.

“I couldn’t have imagined it, I couldn’t have imagined a better week to do it,” he said after his win.

The Masters, the first major of the season for men, is an invitational event, meaning it is up to Augusta National members to send out invitations and select the field of men who will compete for the coveted green jacket. This is unique among major championships.

This year, there’s been extra attention paid to how players secure their invites, largely because of the rise of LIV Golf, the competition that has poached a dozen top players. (More on that later.) But how players earn their invites to Augusta is part of a larger story about competing at the PGA Tour’s top tournaments, with the strongest fields and biggest prize money.

It is not inconceivable that some golf fans are confused and some players are angry about their exclusion.

What attracted new interest in the qualification process was Joaquin Niemann‘s journey to play well, win and catch the attention of Fred Ridley, the chairman of Augusta National, who was able to give him a special invite.

Niemann, 28, of Chile, had played in four Masters tournaments. His first invitation came in 2018 after winning the Latin American Amateur Championship, which Augusta sponsors and invites its winner. He tied for 16th last year, his best Masters finish.

Normally, such a player would have enough world ranking points to easily qualify for a Masters invitation. But Niemann went to LIV in 2022 and his ranking dropped from 18 in 2022 to 91 today. That put him outside the top 50 for invitations.

Although he has played well at LIV this year, the competition is not eligible for world ranking points due to the staggered starts, shorter tournaments and team format. Other LIV players in the field have exemptions if they are past the major champions or were in the top 50 at the end of last year.

They include Jon Rahm, the reigning champion; Phil Mickelson, a former champion who competed last year; and Brooks Koepka, who finished second last year and went on to win the PGA Championship, which includes invitations to the Masters for five years.

So Niemann, whose agent refused to make him available, went around the world, playing on various international tours to show himself at Augusta National. He won the Australian Open last year and had top-10 finishes in three other international tournaments in Australia; Dubai, the United Arab Emirates; and Oman. He also won two LIV events.

Augusta has a history of inviting the best international players. In the 1980s it introduced Germany’s Bernhard Langer, Australia’s Greg Norman and Spain’s Seve Ballesteros to the world of golf.

Neimann’s plan worked. He received one of three special invitations that went to international players who had not yet played in the tournament.

“The Masters Tournament has a long tradition of inviting leading international players who would not otherwise qualify,” Ridley said in February when announcing the special exemptions. “Today’s announcement represents the tournament’s continued commitment to developing interest in the game of golf around the world.”

Niemann was the only LIV player who was not a former Masters or Major champion and still received a special invitation. Talor Gooch was ranked 58th in the world when he finished 34th at the Masters last year. He received that invitation because he was in the top 50 at the end of 2022, which is one of the criteria. He went on to win three times at LIV that season, en route to being named LIV’s player of the year.

Yet Gooch, who is ranked 550 in the world, did not receive an invitation this year and was not happy about that.

“If Rory McIlroy completes his grand slam without some of the best players in the world, then there’s just an asterisk,” he said. “It’s just reality.” McIlroy has won three of the majors but will miss the Masters.

Few agreed.

So what are the different ways to get into the Masters? The most coveted is as a former champion. They are given a lifetime invitation, although they are encouraged to retire if they are not competitive. This year would have been Langer’s last Masters at age 66, before he got injured.

In addition, winning any of the other three major championships gives a player five years of invitations, the Players Championship gets three, and an Olympic gold medal winner gets one invitation.

To honor the tournament’s amateur roots, invitations will go to the winner and runner-up of the United States Amateur Championship and the winners of the British Amateur, Asia-Pacific Amateur and Latin America Amateur. The winner of the NCAA Championship will also receive an invitation.

Stewart Hagestad, the reigning U.S. Mid-Amateur champion and longtime Walker Cup champion, will be making his third Masters appearance. He won the Mid-Amateur in 2016, 2021 and 2023. In 2017, his first year, he made the cut and won the award for the lowest amateur tournament.

The remaining invitations are based on players’ performance in recent major championships and on the winners of a PGA Tour event in the previous year.

This year there are about 90 players, a small field for a major championship. The other three majors have qualification processes. The United States and British Opens are for anyone who can play their way in. The PGA Championship creates its field from touring and club pros.

Still, the PGA Tour-LIV split has created a complex situation outside of the Masters: which players get to play in the PGA Tour’s new Signature Events. These events have big prize pools, limited fields and, in some cases, no cuts. They’re not majors, but they’re on top courses with stiff competition.

Like the Masters, the top 50 in the world golf rankings go to the Signature Events. But then it’s a struggle to fill other, limited spots at other events. And it’s all new this year.

That’s why the PGA Tour has partnered with Aon, the risk management consultant, to brand the groups that come in and out of contention: the so-called Aon Next 10, the players who rose from 51st to 60th, and the Aon Swing 5, the players who do well in the tournaments prior to the Signature Events.

It’s even more confusing for the fans and a struggle for the players because who gets in a moving target?

Andy Weitz, chief marketing officer at Aon, sees it differently. That confusion is an opportunity to show how the world’s best golfers play throughout the season.

“We were impressed with the modeling, which showed a lot of movement in the top 50 over the course of the year, particularly in numbers 30 through 50,” Weitz said. “It’s fluid in a meaningful way. It creates interesting moments.”