With his win at the Cognizant Classic, Joe Highsmith now gets to play in The Masters for the first time.
Winning on the PGA Tour comes with tremendous perks. You receive a 7-figure check and are guaranteed playing status for two more years.
Perhaps more significantly, PGA Tour winners receive invites to Augusta National and the PGA Championship, a significant stepping stone for first-time champions. Qualifying for majors is no easy task, especially for a younger player like Joe Highsmith, who finished this past year ranked 110th in the FedEx Cup Fall. He did not even have exemptions into Signature Events, let alone the four majors.
But that all changed on Sunday. Thanks to his win at the Cognizant Classic, Highsmith will now receive an invitation from the Green Jackets, a life-changing opportunity that left him borderline speechless.
“Did you say The Masters?” Highsmith said during his post-victory press conference.
“That’s the one. Augusta National is a place that has a really special place in my heart. I’ve only been there a couple of times as a spectator and I was able to play, fortunately, with a couple of members last year.
“It is just like the most incredible place on earth. I went last year to the tournament just as a spectator because any chance I can get to walk out there is pretty — I’m going to take advantage of that. But to be playing in that tournament is going to be very special and something, obviously, you work towards your whole life but you never really know when you’re going to get that chance. It’s pretty sweet for that to be coming pretty soon.”
Highsmith will join 14 other professionals who will make their Masters debut in 2025. Another one of those players happens to be Brian Campbell, who, like Highsmith, won for the first time the week before last in Mexico.
Thomas Detry also won his first PGA Tour event at the WM Phoenix Open in February, which changed his career trajectory. Perhaps Detry will continue to play well and find his way on the European Ryder Cup team this fall.
All three of these players now have access to the season’s final five Signature Events, including this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. But as Highsmith explained, playing in The Masters ranks above all else.
“It’s an extreme advantage to be playing in those elevated events for how much money and points those guys get to play for. Fortunately, I was able to get into those for the rest of the year, and hopefully I can play well,” Highsmith added.
“But it’ll be great, I think, to get out and play with some of those guys. A lot of guys — those best players in the world, I don’t really — especially last year and even this year, I don’t play in the same events as any of them. It’ll be pretty fun to get to compete and see how I stack up with some of them. Just to get that schedule will be really ideal. A lot of other things that come with the win are pretty special. But certainly Augusta is No. 1 by far.”
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.
