 The National was one of a few tournaments given "invitational" status by the PGA Tour, and consequently it had a reduced field of only 120 players (as opposed to most full-field open tournaments with a field of 156 players).Other tournaments with invitational status include the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the RBC Heritage, the Fort Worth Invitational, and the Memorial Tournament.Invitational tournaments had smaller fields (between 100 and 132 players), and had more freedom than full-field open tournaments in determining which players were eligible to participate in their event, as invitational tournaments were not required to fill their fields using the PGA Tour Priority Ranking System.