Fred Ridley, Chairman of Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters Tournament, announced Wednesday that Denmark’s Nicolai Højgaard and Chile’s Joaquín Niemann have accepted invitations to play in the 2025 Masters.
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“In support of Augusta National’s efforts to develop interest in golf globally, international players of merit who have not otherwise qualified have been invited throughout the Tournament’s history. The tradition continues by welcoming Nicolai and Joaquín back to the Masters, as both players have demonstrated their talents competing around the world,” Riley said.
Højgaard, 23, is preparing for his second appearance after his debut in 2024. He was tied for 16th and is currently 60th in the World Rankings. Nicolai’s twin brother Rasmus will make his Masters debut (April 10-13), marking the first time that twins have played together in a tournament.
Niemann, 26, will be competing for the sixth time. He has made the cut at each of the last four Masters, and has finished in the top 25 at the last two. He is ranked 71st in the world.
As of today, 87 golfers have been invited to compete in the 2025 Masters, leaving three paths to qualify for the first ‘major’ of the year.
The Masters is one of the four major tournaments, the most important of the men’s professional golf season. It is the only major that has been played on the same course since its first edition and is played every year at the Augusta National Golf Club, in Georgia (USA), in one of the most exclusive clubs in the world.
The tournament was born in 1934 as the Augusta National Invitation Tournament on the initiative of Bobby Jones, who was also the designer of the course with Alister Mackenzie, and Clifford Roberts, an investor from New York. In 1939 the tournament changed its name to the current one and since 1940 it has been played every year in the first full week of April. The best professionals from all over the world participate in it and also the amateurs who hold the title of champion of the United States and Great Britain.
The selection criteria are very strict, even more than the other majors. This means that the number of participants is around 100, compared to about 160 in the other major tournaments. In fact, in addition to past winners of the Masters, the winners of the last five editions of the other majors, the last three editions of the Players Championship, the top four classified in each major of the previous year (but the top 12 of the last Masters), the top 50 classified in the Official World Golf Ranking of the previous year and the top 50 of the current year (in the week before the tournament), the qualifiers for the Tour Championship of the previous year and the champions of the Amateur tournaments are admitted.
Among the multiple winners of this tournament are Jack Nicklaus, who has won it 6 times (the last in 1986, at the age of 46), and Tiger Woods, who has won it 5 times (the first in 1997, at 21 years and 3 months, thus becoming the first black player and the youngest to win in the history of the tournament). In 2017, after having participated in 73 majors without a victory, Sergio García managed to win the Masters by beating the Englishman Justin Rose in the playoff.
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