Masters field 2015: Matt Every earns late invite to Augusta with win at Bay Hill

It took a few weeks, but we finally have a new addition to the Masters field. Matt Every’s win at Bay Hill makes him the 95th name on the invitees list.

Every took the Arnold Palmer Invitational for the second straight year. As I noted on Sunday night, this is clearly a “horses for courses” situation because there hasn’t been much world class golf from Every in the intervening 52 weeks. Nevertheless, the ball striking was pure again in Orlando and it was enough to get Every a second career win and a second straight invite to Augusta. He’ll be getting one of these in the mail soon enough.

Every needed a birdie putt on the 18th hole to drop in order to beat out Henrik Stenson, who started the day three shots clear of the Florida native. Stenson, of course, is one of the top players in the world with a healthy resume of worldwide wins and career earnings. He’s currently No. 3 in the world and never had to worry about getting in the field at Augusta in two weeks. So when he had a birdie putt on the 18th to match and force a playoff, the Masters was top of mind for Every.

Every bombed in his first appearance at Augusta National last year. He shot 77-78 through the first two rounds and missed the cut by a mile. There were only eight players with a worse score through the first two days, and most of them were either amateurs or the old timer past champions who were still cashing in that lifetime invite. One would assume things would have to go better for Every this second time around Augusta.

This next week will be big for last-minute qualifying. There are just two exemption methods left to earn an invite -- either win one of the two remaining PGA Tour events, or jump into the top 50 in the Official World Golf Rankings that come out next Monday.

The biggest name just on the outside of the cut line is Harris English. He’s maybe the most talented of the many UGA products on Tour, but he’s still not into a Masters field that’s already populated with several Bulldogs. English needed a top 10 result from the final round at Bay Hill to jump into the top 50 in the rankings, but instead he shot a 75 and tumbled 21 spots down the leaderboard to finish T29. It was right there for him but he’ll have another chance to inch into the top 50 this week at the Valero Texas Open. Here’s the group (those not already invited in white) just outside the top 50 this final week with a shot to play their way into the last ranking before Augusta.

And here’s your current 95-man field, sorted by country. We might get one or two more names before everything is closed.