AUGUSTA, Ga. (Associated Press) - The Masters is making a rare change to its qualifying criteria by eliminating invitations to PGA Tour winners in the fall and joining the R&A in recognizing winners of six national opens on every main tour in the world.

Augusta National and the R&A announced plans Tuesday to align aspects of their criteria to create a path to the Masters and British Open for winners or top finishers in the South African Open, Australian Open, Japan Open, Spanish Open, Hong Kong Open and Scottish Open.

The Opens in South Africa and Australia are among the five oldest in golf.

This builds on the “Open Qualifying Series” the R&A created in 2013 to attract players from every continent where golf is played. The difference is that Augusta National invites only the winner, whi

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