diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
index c2400f508..6f45ff9ea 100644
--- a/AUTHORS
+++ b/AUTHORS
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ Antony Lee
 Armin Rigo
 Aron Curzon
 Aviv Palivoda
+Barney Gale
 Ben Webb
 Benjamin Peterson
 Bernard Pratz
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.rst b/CHANGELOG.rst
index 612ee0f3b..77bf5a5f6 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.rst
+++ b/CHANGELOG.rst
@@ -8,7 +8,10 @@
 
 *
 
-*
+* Conditionless ``xfail`` markers no longer rely on the underlying test item
+  being an instance of ``PyobjMixin``, and can therefore apply to tests not
+  collected by the built-in python test collector. Thanks `@barneygale`_ for the
+  PR.
 
 *
 
@@ -49,6 +52,7 @@
   terminal output it relies on is missing. Thanks to `@eli-b`_ for the PR.
 
 
+.. _@barneygale: https://github.com/barneygale
 .. _@lesteve: https://github.com/lesteve
 .. _@malinoff: https://github.com/malinoff
 .. _@pelme: https://github.com/pelme
diff --git a/_pytest/skipping.py b/_pytest/skipping.py
index 91a34169f..edc54bff8 100644
--- a/_pytest/skipping.py
+++ b/_pytest/skipping.py
@@ -119,7 +119,6 @@ class MarkEvaluator:
         if hasattr(self, 'result'):
             return self.result
         if self.holder:
-            d = self._getglobals()
             if self.holder.args or 'condition' in self.holder.kwargs:
                 self.result = False
                 # "holder" might be a MarkInfo or a MarkDecorator; only
@@ -135,6 +134,7 @@ class MarkEvaluator:
                     for expr in args:
                         self.expr = expr
                         if isinstance(expr, py.builtin._basestring):
+                            d = self._getglobals()
                             result = cached_eval(self.item.config, expr, d)
                         else:
                             if "reason" not in kwargs: