2023 Masters: Are LIV golfers ready for the pressure?

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Locked in a sudden-death playoff with Louis Oosthuizen, sitting on some pine straw deep into the right side woods of Augusta National’s 10th hole, still some 163 yards from the pin, Bubba Watson had seemingly no good option.

Here on the 74th hole of the 2012 Masters, Watson needed some kind of a miracle to stay alive for a green jacket. In this case, it was an opening in the trees that offered a path out to the fairway. The safe option was there, but Watson tried a different tact.

He de-lofted his gap wedge, closed the face and over swung, blasting his ball out past the last tree (and a TV tower) before it began to spin so violently that it hooked right some 45 yards before settling onto the elevated green as fans around the world were left gasping and cheering at the brilliance.

“Crazy shot,” Watson said.

Two putts later, he was the Masters champion.

It’s one of the most famous shots in the venerable tournament’s history. Fans still stop where it took place and try to figure out how such a feat was even possible. It was equal parts science and art, but mostly it was the result of intense preparation, practice and an ability to perform amidst the most gut-wrenching of pressure — “nervous every shot,” Watson said.

It was one moment built off a thousand moments.

This is the legend of the Masters. The loaded field and challenging course requires the best players in the world to play to their best. Anything less isn’t enough.

It’s why one of the pre-tournament questions this year is the level of preparation among the 18 participants, including Watson, who left the traditional PGA Tour for the upstart LIV Golf.

They can compete at the Masters via traditional qualifying methods — previous champions, other majors, etc. — but jumping to LIV has taken those players out of the traditional tournaments (mainly on the PGA and European Tours) that lead here.

It’s why this isn’t just LIV vs. PGA here.

It’s LIV vs. LIV if you will; a referendum on the new tour that goes beyond business models, rivalries or politics.

“I think it is important for us to go there and really show a high standard of golf, which we know we are capable of,” said Cam Smith, who won the 2022 British Open before jumping to LIV. “Most of us will get four cracks at it this year [in the four majors], and hopefully we get maybe a win out of it. Maybe we just show a really hearty effort.

“I think for us, internally, there’s a lot of chatter going around about, ‘These guys don’t play real golf anymore,’” Smith continued. “I think it’s B.S. to be honest, and we just want to show people that.”

There is no doubting the talent of Smith or Watson or many of the others, including Brooks Koepka (four-time major champ) and Dustin Johnson (two-time champ). At their best, they can be the best.

Can they still hit their best though?

As Smith eluded, the perception of LIV is that it is a more lucrative, but less competitive tour; more money, less work.

LIV has just 14 events a year. Backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, it guarantees massive salaries and promises no cuts. It also includes a team element, doesn’t compete on the best courses and consists of just 54 holes via a shotgun start. Additionally, there is almost no television audience and little media.

Is that enough? Can someone sharpen his game to the level that, say, Watson needed to hit that incredible 2012 shot under those circumstances?

That’s the pressure. And it isn’t just fan- or media-driven. The LIV players are well aware they have a lot to prove and, back in a much larger spotlight, a critical chance to prove it.

Golf may be the ultimate individual game, but in this case there is a tour element on the line. If LIV players come to Augusta and bomb, it would be humiliating for the entire pursuit and call into question exactly what the Saudis are funding.

LIV commissioner Greg Norman said his players have told him that they will pull for each other in Augusta and will treat a victory by any of them as a victory for all of them.

“There’s talk in our teams all around here ... if one of the guys, no matter who it is, they are going to be there on the 18th green, they are all going to be there,” Norman told NewsCorp.

This is the first of the referendums on LIV as an actual league.

“Would I like to have LIV be up at the top? Of course,” said Patrick Reed, the 2018 Masters champ. “But really, at the end of the day, it’s all of us going in there and just trying to play the best golf we can and be ready for [one of] the four biggest weeks of the year.”

Can LIV do that? Could playing less tournament golf actually be beneficial? Can you flip on and off the experience of playing under pressure — for the cut, for prize money, for everything?

This week we find out, because someone is going to need to make some astounding shot. It’s up to them to be ready to do it.