AUGUSTA, Ga. — Well, it’s springtime in the valley, begins Dave Loggins’ song “Augusta.” It’s the one you hear in a lilting instrumental version during Masters telecasts.
Peace in the valley? That’s another matter.
The Masters is back, the most anticipated golf tournament of the year. But with it comes a backdrop of strife and tension that outshines the azaleas, dogwoods and pines.
The breakaway LIV Golf tour has driven a wedge in the men’s professional game that all the king’s caddies may never be able to put back together again. The fault line is laid bare at this Masters, the first since LIV started playing in June.
Eighteen of the 88 golfers here play on the LIV tour. That includes six past Masters champions: Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson, Sergio Garcia, Charl Schwartzel and former University High golfer Patrick Reed. Other prominent LIV players include four-time major winner Brooks Koepka and Cameron Smith, the current British Open and former Zurich Classic champion.
How LIV Golf is funded is the issue. It’s underwritten by the Saudi Arabian government’s Public Investment Fund, which is using this vast fortune (over $600 billion in assets) to sportswash its dreadful human-rights record and things such as murdering journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The LIV golfers didn’t concern themselves with that. They just wanted the money. Vast piles of cash. Reportedly, LIV Golf spent $784 million in its inaugural season with virtually zero revenue coming back in.
It’s hasn’t led to outright hostility here but definitely some awkward moments. Mickelson reportedly didn’t say a word during Tuesday’s champions dinner. World No. 2 Rory McIlroy, who needs the Masters to complete the career Grand Slam, has slammed LIV Golf in the past but tried to be diplomatic this week.
“The Masters and the four major championships sit above all that noise,” McIlroy said. “That’s the way it should be this week.”
It should be, but it isn’t. In the midst of golf’s civil war, the Masters is caught in the crossfire. It’s like a beautiful orchard outside Gettysburg or Chattanooga suddenly invaded by blue-clad marauders from one side and gray ones from the other. Or, in this context, guys wearing PGA Tour money clips and guys from the LIV side wearing gear from their goofy-sounding teams like the RangeGoats and Cleeks.
The LIV threat led the PGA Tour to rework its schedule with elevated events offering huge purses this season and plans for more in 2024. That’s great for golfers and tournaments such as the Memorial and the Arnold Palmer Invitational, but it also threatens the future of more garden variety tournaments such as the Zurich Classic.
If this makes you say — “I hate this. I just want to mix myself an Arnold Palmer and watch the best tournament of the year at the most gorgeous course on Earth” — I get it.
But just like patrons won’t escape getting muddied this weekend if Augusta National is inundated by rain, there was no way the Masters was going to keep mud off its green jackets.
If the LIV golfers were uninvited, the criticism from some non-Amen corners would have been tremendous. Since the LIV guys are playing, the criticism from some non-Amen corners has been tremendous. At a news conference Tuesday in Atlanta, Terry Strada, chair of the 9/11 Families United organization, expressed “outrage and disappointment” that the LIV golfers were allowed to play because of their Saudi funding.
“We implore Augusta National to rethink their decision to allow these Saudi servants a world stage, and not permit them to partake in future Masters tournaments,” said Strada, who said she spoke to Ridley this week.
Whether that will ever happen no one can say. Ridley announced a tweak to qualifications for the 2024 Masters, but it was mainly cosmetic. All past champions are still invited, as are the past five winners of golf’s other majors, the world top 50 from the end of 2023 and the week before the Masters.
Ay, there’s the rub. LIV players do not get world ranking points for their tournaments, only from majors and other sanctioned tours. If that remains the case, fewer LIV-ers will play in the 2024 Masters.
For all of its millions, LIV Golf needs the legitimacy of one of its own winning that the Masters would provide.
“I think we need to be up there,” Smith said. “I think there’s a lot of chatter about these guys don’t play real golf, these guys don’t play real golf courses.”
Surprisingly, Smith admitted the LIV Golf fields aren’t as strong as the PGA Tour’s.
“But we’ve still got a lot of guys that can play some really serious golf,” he said. “Yeah, I think we just need a good, strong finish.”
I think golf needs all the LIV guys to miss the cut. The sooner the Saudis get tired of wasting their vast fortunes, the better for the game overall.
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