Collin Morikawa of La Canada Flintridge and the University of California is one of four players who have been added to the field for the 84th Masters, which was scheduled for this week but has been postponed until Nov. 12-15.
Morikawa (pictured), Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland, Scottie Scheffler and Christiaan Bezuidenhout of South Africa were on the list of 96 qualifiers that was released on Tuesday by Augusta National Golf Club.
All four made the field by climbing into the top 50 of the Official World Golf Rankings as of March 30, with the PGA Tour shut down because of the Coronavirus pandemic.
“We want to emphasize that our future plans are incumbent upon favorable counsel and direction from health officials,” Chairman Fred Ridley of Augusta National said in a statement. “Provided that occurs and we can conduct the 2020 Masters, we intend to invite those professionals and amateurs who would have qualified for our original April date.”
The 23-year-old Morikawa, who won The Farms Invitational and the Pacific 12 Conference Championship last year as a senior at Cal, climbed to No. 44 in the World Rankings by tying for ninth in the Arnold Palmer Invitational in his final event last month before things were closed down.
It was the third top-10 finish of the season for Morikawa, who made a big splash on the PGA Tour after turning pro following the college season last year. He tied for 14th in his pro debut at the RBC Canadian Open in June before reeling getting red-hot in July.
Morikawa tied for second in the 3M Open and tied for fourth in the John Deere Classic, but that was just a warm-up for his first professional victory in the Barracuda Championship. He broke 70 in 11 of the 12 rounds in those three tournaments, shooting an even 70 in the first round of the John Deere in the other.
In his only major so far, Morikawa tied for 35th in the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.
Morikawa, who was No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings for three weeks in 2018, won six times for the Golden Bears in addition to capturing the 2013 Western Junior, the 2015 Trans-Mississippi Amateur, the 2016 Silicon Amateur, the 2016 Sunnehanna Amateur and the 2017 Northeast Amateur.
McDowell, 40, who won the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, posted a best finish this season when he tied for fourth at the Sony Open in Hawaii, and he climbed two spots to No. 49 in the final rankings before play was halted.
Scheffler, 23, low amateur in the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills who won twice on the 2019 Korn Ferry Tour, tied for 15th in the Arnold Palmer Invitational to climb six positions to No. 45 the world rankings, earning his first spot in a major as a pro.
Bezuidenhout, 25, rode a runner-up finish at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic and a victory at the Dimension Data Pro-Am on the European Tour into the top 50 of the world rankings, and is No. 47 after a tie for 29th in the WGC Mexico Championship and a tie for 18th in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
In his only major appearance, Bezuidenhout missed the cut in the 2019 Open Championship at Royal Portrush in Ireland.
Masters officials confirmed that any winners of 2020 PGA Tour events leading up to the November date for the Masters will be eligible for the 2021 Masters next April.
To see the entire field of Masters invitees, visit https://www.masters.com/en_US/players/invitees_2020.html
