European Tour Members Prayad Marksaeng of Thailand, Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa and Spaniard Alvaro Quiros earned three of the last five available places in the 2009 Masters Tournament via the Official World Golf Ranking.
The trio joined Australian Matthew Goggin in the top 50 of the World Rankings at the close of play on Sunday, March 29, to win their places at the first Major of the season at Augusta National, bringing the number of European Tour Members going to The Masters to 47.
There is now just one spot at The 2009 Masters remaining for the winner of this week’s US PGA Tour event – the Shell Houston Open.
Quiros, winner of the Commercialbank Qatar Masters presented by Dolphin Energy on The 2009 European Tour International Schedule, qualified comfortably in 25th place in the World Rankings, but Marksaeng and Oosthuizen had to endure a tense wait before celebrating their places at Augusta.
Marksaeng needed a top three finish at the Asian Tour’s Black Mountain Masters to be sure of qualifying for the Masters but found himself in a tie for 48th place – and ten strokes off the lead – going into the weekend.
The Thai player, who had to withdraw from a Masters debut 12 month ago due to a back injury, produced an inspired final 36 holes of 13 under par, including a final round 64, to finish in a tie for second place behind his European Tour colleague Johan Edfors, to secure his Masters Invitation.
Oosthuizen, meanwhile, had to make the cut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard to ensure his place at the Masters. The South African comfortably made the weekend at Bay Hill, allowing himself the luxury of fine tuning his game for the Masters as World Number One Tiger Woods secured his first victory since returning from injury last month.
