As 2024 Masters arrives, LIV golfers again will join the fray
Starting Monday at Augusta National Golf Club, the old gang is getting back together – until the next major championship.
The stars of the PGA Tour will be joined for the beginning of Masters Tournament practice rounds by most of their former compatriots who left for the breakaway LIV Golf, which started in June 2022.
There are 13 LIV members in the field, including newcomer Jon Rahm, the defending Masters champion.
The PGA Tour banned golfers who joined LIV Golf, which means players from the two tours only meet in the four major championships because none of them are conducted by the PGA Tour.
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Augusta National Golf Club runs the Masters; the PGA of America is in charge of the PGA Championship; the United States Golf Association runs the U.S. Open; and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club has the British Open.
The next major is the PGA Championship, May 16-19, at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky.
While a sprinkling of PGA Tour players – including five-time champion Tiger Woods – were at Augusta National on Sunday, none of the LIV tour golfers were able to get in early preparations for the 88th Masters Tournament. They were in Doral, Fla., for the final round of the LIV Golf Miami tournament Sunday at Trump National Doral.
Woods has only completed one full round of the PGA Tour since withdrawing during the third round of the 2023 Masters. He has battled foot and ankle ailments since, but he’s giving it a shot this week. It will be his 26th Masters.
“To those of us who watch him and played with him so many years, we’re pulling for him,” said two-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw, who spoke to Woods on the course. “We want him to play his best. He can get it around, believe me. I’m in that camp. He’ll figure out a way.”
Of the 13 LIV golfers in the Masters field, seven of them are former Masters champions who have lifetime invitations to play. They are Rahm, two-time champion Bubba Watson, Sergio Garcia, Patrick Reed, Dustin Johnson, Carl Schwartzel and Phil Mickelson, a three-time Masters champion who is celebrating the 20th anniversary of his first win at Augusta National.
DeChambeau is in the fourth year of his five-year exemption for winning the 2020 U.S. Open, Smith is in the second year of his five-year exemption for winning the 2022 British Open and Koepka is just starting his five-year exemption for winning last year’s PGA Championship. Koepka, a co-runnerup in the 2023 Masters, also qualified by finishing in the top 12 last year.
Two LIV golfers (Tyrell Hatton and Adrian Meronk) made the field by being in the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking at the end of 2023 and Joaquin Niemann, who is from Chile, received a special invitation. A number of LIV players have dropped out of the top 50 because LIV does not receive world ranking points.
Because of their LIV commitments, the seven Masters champions at Doral missed out on an interesting perk. On the Sunday before the Masters, champions can bring one guest with them to play a practice round.
Crenshaw brought his manager, Scotty Sayers.
Vijay Singh, the 2000 champion who played Sunday but didn’t bring a guest this year, said he understands why his fellow former Masters champions on LIV weren’t out there.
“They’ve got a tournament this week, right?” Singh said. “Why would they want to be here then? They’ve got a tournament to play. First place is $4 million, right?”
Ian Woosnam, the 1991 champion who last played in the Masters in 2021, brought a friend Sunday. He said the former champions will have plenty of time to take advantage of the Sunday tradition.
“You’ve got to be (the former Masters champs who in LIV), they might be doing it in the future,” Woosnam said. “They’ll be doing what I’m doing in 15 years, hopefully. Those guys are young yet. We’re just old farts screwing around and having a bit of fun.”
And loving every minute of it.
“I think it’s fantastic to fetch a friend to play,” Woosnam said. “They get to experience what we’ve been doing for the last 40 years and to understand how difficult this golf course is. You can’t believe it. You’ve got a lot of friends and everybody wants to have a game. It’s a nice tradition to fetch a friend.”
Singh explained why he didn’t take advantage of the “one guest” Sunday perk.
“I didn’t feel like I wanted to entertain anybody,” he said. “I have done it in the past. If you’ve got a good friend you want to bring out, that’s fine. I had a lot of guys that wanted to play. But like I said, I didn’t want to entertain anybody.”
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: 2024 Masters: LIV returns to golf's major championship spotlight
