Michael Kim moved to No. 50 on Official World Golf Ranking, narrowly ahead of Ben Griffin

It was a thrilling finish to the Texas Children’s Houston Open, with Min Woo Lee clipping Scottie Scheffler and Gary Woodland by a stroke for his first PGA TOUR title.

But, slightly further down the leaderboard, a tightly contested battle for a Masters Tournament spot came down to the wire – and the two central characters, Michael Kim and Ben Griffin, felt the stakes highly at Memorial Park Golf Course. The top 50 players on the Official World Golf Ranking after the Texas Children’s Houston Open qualified for the Masters, with Kim and Griffin squarely on the bubble as Sunday unfolded.

With a T32 finish at the Texas Children’s Houston Open, Kim moved from No. 52 to No. 50 on the Official World Golf Ranking to secure his first Masters berth since 2019. For Kim, who stood outside the top 150 on the world ranking in January, it marked a flagship moment in his rapid ascent this spring. Griffin was the first man out; he finished T18 at the Texas Children’s Houston Open, moving from No. 53 to No. 51 on the OWGR. Griffin was seeking his first career Masters berth.

Kim drained a 7-footer for par at the par-4 18th on Sunday in Houston, punctuated by a fist pump that would have seemed out of place to those who didn’t realize the potential stakes. It was a testy finish for Kim, who battled a cracked driver on the final few holes and bogeyed Nos. 15 and 17 to put his Masters berth in peril. As it turned out, Kim had a shot to play with; his OWGR points average was 2.0306 after a seven-way T32 in Houston. Had he bogeyed the final hole and fallen into a nine-way T38, his OWGR points average would have been 2.0234 – still fractionally ahead of Griffin’s 2.0208 average. After finishing his round Sunday though, he knew his fate was yet to be determined.

“I made some pretty nervy swings on the back nine there thinking about it,” Kim said afterward. “At the end of the day, I'm just trying to make the best score possible. That doesn't change whether I'm trying to get into the Masters or any other day. You know, that extra added consequence didn't make it feel any easier, for sure. We'll see.”

Conversely, Griffin finished one shot short of a Masters berth with all else equal. Griffin finished in a nine-way T18 after a bogey-free 65 Sunday at Memorial Park, including a birdie at the par-3 ninth, his final hole, after which he told volunteers that his 5-foot birdie “might have gotten me in the Masters.” It was a spirited run for the University of North Carolina alum who stepped away from professional golf earlier in his career to work as a mortgage loan officer. As it turned out, he needed one more birdie – with a final-round 64, he would have finished in a four-way T15; his OWGR points average would have moved to 2.0456, ahead of Kim.

Griffin was on the verge of tears as he met the media Sunday afternoon, knowing that he played the strong round of golf that was necessary to give himself a chance – but that it might not have been enough.

“I'm trying my best to concentrate on each individual shot. As golfers, we say that all the time but it's really, really difficult to do that when you have external factors like getting into a major or a top-10 gets you into next week or status, whatever it may be,” Griffin said after the final round. “You've still got to focus on each individual shot and try to see it.

“The best thing for me I could do was in between shots try not to think about it too much … stuff like that, to try to get it off my mind. But man, when you have a dream as a little kid and you have a chance, there's a lot of emotions over every shot. I mean, I'm tearing up right now thinking about it. Yeah, we'll see what happens.”

Griffin has one final avenue to a spot in the field; the winner of this week’s Valero Texas Open will also earn a Masters exemption. Griffin is in the field at the Valero for his 13th straight week of competition – exhausting all avenues as he strives to compete at Augusta National.

“That was crazy. Congrats man!! You’ve been on a heck of a run,” Griffin wrote to Kim on X.

“Go win Valero and I’ll see you there!” Kim replied to Griffin.

PGA TOUR’s Kevin Robbins and Devon Reagan contributed to this report