http://golf.about.com/od/progolftours/a/sponsor-exemptions.htm
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1196276/index.htm
Two weeks
away from the Masters, always the most anticipated tournament of the year, a little-noticed race-within-the-race on the PGA Tour—the hunt for coveted special exemptions—has begun to take shape. (Tournament officials can invite, through sponsor's and foreign exemptions, anyone they choose. A PGA Tour member can accept an unlimited number of sponsor's exemptions, while a nonmember can take only seven a year.