Around this time last year, LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman suggested that, should a LIV player win the Masters, that the other 17 in attendance (or at least those who’d survived the 36-hole cut and saw action on Sunday) would effectively storm the 18th green to share in the celebrations.
Given Augusta National’s disdain for anything verging on the obscene, this was never likely to happen, and Jon Rahm ensured that we’d never actually find out, but even the sentiment was evidence that LIV players felt that they had been marginalised, undervalued and had a point to prove.
And in fairness, they proved it. Brooks Koepka lead through 54 holes, eventually finishing tied for second with Phil Mickelson and Patrick Reed was tied for fourth. And Koepka emphatically silenced any further debate as to the competitiveness when he won the PGA Championship six weeks later. So this year, the narrative is entirely different.
This year, with the defending champion now among their cohort, not only are LIV players expecting to do well – every elite player has a level of confidence and self assurance that is necessary to rise to the upper echelons of the sport – but they are expected to do well by the public, the media, the bookmakers, and anybody else with a vested interest in the year’s first major.
And that is reflected in the soundbites coming from Augusta National on the first day of practice. LIV’s position has strengthened considerably in the past 12 months, partly due to Koepka’s PGA win, more so to the acquisition of Jon Rahm, but primarily due to the Framework Agreement that was announced in June. And players no longer feel that LIV players’ major championship performances are necessary to drive the desire for reunification of golf at the elite levels.
“I don’t think it would really affect it,” said Joaquin Niemann when asked if a LIV player win would have any impact on furthering negotiations. “I think there is already too many good players on every Tour. I believe that if it — I don’t think there’s a LIV player has to win the Masters to change things. I think things are changing already, and they are going to come up with a solution, with an agreement or whatever they are trying to do, for the best.”
Bryson DeChambeau felt similar, though the 2020 US Open winner suggested that while LIV players may be happy to see another member of their league don the Green Jacket on Sunday, the same may not necessarily be the case for players on the PGA Tour.
“I think the negotiations are going on with or without a win,” DeChambeau said. “I think if a LIV player were to win, including myself, I think we’d all be extremely excited and happy for whoever that individual is.
“I’m not so sure for the other side, but that’s for them to make up their own emotional state I guess you could say.
“From a negotiation standpoint, I don’t think it’ll change much to be honest with you.”
DeChambeau went on to reiterate his desire to see the worlds’ best players back playing together with more regularity and to defend his decision to move to LIV and the part he played in the current fracturing of the game.
“Continue to talk to players on both sides,” he replied when asked what he and other players can do to help the process along. “Just show that there is a mutually beneficial ground, a peace that I hope a lot of people can start to see.
“I’ve had visions of this for quite a long time. You can’t publicly say them, unfortunately, because you get scrutinized and criticized and everybody throws things in certain ways to give you curve balls.
“I want to be very careful and cautious because I don’t know what the future of golf fully looks like, and I’m just a bystander trying to play some golf and trying to help advocate for the fans to win again. They need to win.
“And people can say I moved to one side, but I did it for my family and what I had in front of me at that point in time. I think my mom would have probably smacked me for not taking the deal.
“Everybody has their own prerogatives and wishes and wants, and the only thing I wish is that we can all see eye to eye on some things and that we can come back to some level playing field where we can all have some fun together.”
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