It was a classic, made-for-Disney moment.

Entering October, Davis Love III was in danger of losing his PGA Tour card for the first time in his 23-year career. The next thing you know, he banks four six-figure checks and wins the season-ending event at Disney World, thus securing a lifetime tour exemption and probable Hall of Fame stature as a 20-time tour winner.

It's everything the 44-year-old Love could want -- except for one thing.

No Masters Tournament.

Even a lifetime tour exemption doesn't mean Love is invited to the one major championship he covets the most. One of the tour's long-standing stars -- whose streak of 70 consecutive major starts was snapped at Augusta last year -- is one of the Fall guys when it comes to qualifying for an April trip to Augusta National Golf Club.

Winners of the tour's seven Fall Series events don't receive the same automatic invitation to the Masters that the winners of regular-season events, such as the weak-field John Deere or Wyndham, are granted. That means six recent winners -- with the exception of 2007 Masters champion Zach Johnson -- aren't coming to Augusta next year. Really, it's eight if you include the two post-Masters opposite-event winners.

That means all those guys who accomplished one of the toughest things to do in golf -- winning a PGA Tour event -- will be sitting home and watching no-win players who excelled at timely mediocrity (see Bubba Watson and Billy Mayfair) compete for the green jacket. Not exactly a meritocracy, but the Masters doesn't want to clutter up its field with too many qualified players who win what the club has deemed to be "inferior" events.

If you feel bad for Love and the other Fall guys, feel worse for Brian Gay.

The former Louisville, Ga., resident has been fighting for everything he's earned since turning pro in 1995. He won his first event in February in Mexico in his 293rd PGA Tour start, but because it was an opposite event, it didn't get him into the 2008 Masters.

But with five other top-10 finishes, including a playoff loss in the first Fall Series event, Gay entered the final tournament ranked 30th on the money list.

All he needed to do was make the cut and he was in the 2009 Masters, but he missed by two strokes thanks to a double bogey on his first hole of the day -- the only blemish on his 4-under Friday scorecard. Ken Duke, who was already qualified for the Masters by reaching the Tour Championship, passed Gay and dropped him to 31st on the money list, just $3,342 shy of fulfilling a lifelong dream to play Augusta.

But if Gay doesn't exude the star quality of a major player, how about J.B. Holmes? One of the stars of the winning U.S. Ryder Cup team finished 32nd on the money list and will probably have to win in 2009 to make it back to Augusta. That's the same avenue that local stars and recent U.S. team members Charles Howell and Vaughn Taylor will have to take.

Augusta should challenge Chicago for its "Second City" designation. Since mid-September, four golfers with links to Georgia's second largest city have been on a serial bridesmaid spree.

Augusta State's Oliver Wilson was on the losing European Ryder Cup team the same week Gay was losing a playoff in the Viking Classic.

Two weeks later, 10-time career runner-up Howell blew the 54-hole lead at the Turning Stone Championship and tied for third.

Two weeks ago, Taylor narrowly missed a playoff in Florida the week before his fellow former Jaguar Wilson lost a playoff to Sergio Garcia in China for his fifth runner-up finish in a 12-month span.

At least one of them probably did enough to get into the Masters.

Wilson climbed to 42nd in the world ranking and won't lose any ground this week with a solid showing in Singapore. He should be able to hang onto his top-50 ranking in the final month after playing his last event of the season in Hong Kong next week.

"I think that should hopefully secure my Masters spot," said Wilson in his Web diary.

But as satisfying as that is for the Englishman who calls Augusta "my second home," it didn't fully soften the sting of another near miss at his maiden win. Wilson has been stalking his first victory since joining the European Tour in 2005. Eight times, he's finished runner-up, five in the past year, including a playoff loss to Miguel Angel JimÃnez at the prestigious BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth and the most recent heartbreaker to Garcia that left him "the most disappointed I've ever been."

"It's just getting to a stage where second is not good enough anymore," Wilson said.

"There was a time when I was pleased to be finishing there, and it's gone, and it's about time I took my chance."

That another breakthrough opportunity came in the far East is no surprise. Wilson's first close call came in the 2006 season opener when he lost a playoff to Paul Casey in the Volvo China Open in Hong Kong. He finished a distant second last year in another Volvo China Open in Beijing. Wilson also lost in a three-way playoff in Thailand in 2007.

The story line of being winless is wearing thin on Wilson, who became the first player to ever qualify for the Ryder Cup without ever posting at least one career victory. His last win came during his senior season at Augusta State, when he was the medalist in the Duke Golf Classic. He won three tournaments his senior All-America season, and was briefly ranked as the No. 1 collegiate golfer by Golfweek magazine.

"It's going to happen, but I'm making it hard on myself," he said. "It will be worth it when I finally get one. It's not going to be easy. It's not going to be given to me."

Said Garcia, his Ryder Cup teammate: "He's going to win soon. He's playing too good not to win. He'll be fine."

Maybe it will come in Augusta. Despite never winning, at least he'll get the chance.