Capelle On Golf

2008 Masters Coverage - Thru 4/15

As of this week there are 90 players in the field for the Masters. The list, however, does not include Martin Kaymer (WGR #23) and Justin Leonard (WGR #34) who will be in the WGR’s top 50 come April 6th. Since it is impossible for them to drop out of the top 50 in two weeks, the folks at the Masters should make provision for things like this by extending their invitations now (or even a few weeks ago), rather than holding back until the final rankings are issued.

The quest to make the field for Augusta continues for 23 golfers in the WGR top 100. Sixteen are playing in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans (for what it’s worth, this sound like a cool name), and another seven are playing on the European Tour in the MAPFRE Open de Andalucía by Valle Romano (that’s not so cool).

Of the 13 sitting out this week, 10 are members of the European Tour. All but one are in the top 33 of the Order of Merit, so it seems like they would be qualified to play this week. The most notable vacationers are Graeme McDowell (WGR #61), Colin Montgomerie (WGR #70), and Mark Brown (WGR #64). Brown has a low divisor, which means that he’s only about one top four from qualifying for Augusta.

Bart Bryant (WGR #67),who finished a shot behind Tiger Woods at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and Ryan Moore (WGR #100) are the only players from the PGA Tour in the top 100 who are not competing this week.

Playing in New Orleans (16)
58 Rod Pampling, 62 Pat Perez, 63 Anthony Kim, 65 Ryuji Imada, 72 Peter Lonard, 74 George McNeil, 78 Carl Petterson, 81 Troy Matteson, 82 Jeff Quinney, 83 Nathan Green, 85 Kenny Perry, 87 Chad Campbell, 89 Fredrik Jacobsen, 92 Joe Durant, 95 Billy Mayfair, 99 Davis Love III

Playing in Europe (7)
69 Bradley Dredge, 71 Peter Hanson, 79 Simon Dyson, 86 Peter Hedbloom, 88 Steve Webster, 97 Ross McGowan, 98 Johan Edfors

Not Playing (13)
61 Graeme McDowell, 64 Mark Brown, 67 Bart Bryant, 68 Brendan Jones, 70 Colin Montgomerie, 73 Jyoti Randhawa, 75 Louis Oosthuizen, 76 Soren Kjeldsen, 77 Charl Schwartzel, 91 Ross Fisher, 93 James Kingston, 96 Mikko Ilonen, 100 Ryan Moore