Breaking; 8 LIV Golf stars have dropped out of The Masters field as sport’s civil war rages on
Breaking; 8 LIV Golf stars have dropped out of The Masters field as sport’s civil war rages on
At Augusta National, the first major event of 2024 – The Masters – unites professional golfers from LIV Golf and PGA Tour. However, compared to its earlier size, the contingent representing LIV is now reduced.
Compared to the previous edition, there has been a significant decrease in the number of LIV Golf players participating in this year’s Masters field.
Out of the group of 88 golfers waiting to play at Augusta, only a mere 13 belong to the league. This figure has decreased from last year’s tally of 21 players- even with newcomers such as Adrian Meronk and reigning champions Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton making their debuts.
Bubba Watson, Charl Schwartzel, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia, like Rahm, are all in thanks to their lifetime exemption as former winners. Meanwhile, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith benefit from being recent major winners. Hatton, Meronk and Joaquin Niemann also profit from their past play, but that leaves eight on the outside looking in.
The LIV Golf stars who are sitting out this week’s Augusta tournament have been listed by Sport Base.
Abraham Ancer
Despite emerging as the victor of LIV Golf’s Hong Kong event, Ancer won’t be making a return to Augusta this year. This puts an end to his consecutive four-participation streak. Despite participating in all four majors back in 2023, the erstwhile world number 11 is currently ineligible for any events this year due to lack of exemption.
Harold Varner III
Despite securing his first LIVGolfwin in Washington DC last May, Varner will not be competing at this year’s Masters tournament – even though he had placed within the top 30 during his past two appearances.
Jason Kokrak
Kokrak, unable to make the cut last year at Augusta despite finishing tied-14th a year prior, has been unsuccessful in making amends this time around. Moreover, he was absent from all three remaining majors of 2023 and will consequently miss out on participating in any of the four tournaments for another entire year.
Kevin Na
As of March this year, Na’s ranking has drastically dropped to 1257th. Unfortunately, he will not be able to improve his record of four top-15 finishes at Augusta since he had withdrawn from the tournament due to an illness during his first round a year ago.
Louis Oosthuizen
Oosthuizen, the 2010 Open champion, is slated to appear at Royal Troon this summer. However, he will not be participating in any other major tournaments this year because despite his victories at the Alfred Dunhill Championship and Mauritius Open towards the end of last year after entering into top-50 rankings in 2022, they were insufficient for him to secure a spot among the top 100 players.
Pereira, in contrast to his fellow countryman Niemann, won’t be present at Augusta. Even though he secured a Masters exemption by finishing third during the 2022 PGA Championship and managed to make the cut on his initial attempt, there’s no chance for him this year.
Talor Gooch
Gooch, who qualified for the 2022 Tour Championship and earned a good ranking, won’t be returning this year. He failed to make the cut at both The Open and PGA championships; consequently, he doesn’t have any majors scheduled for this season.
Thomas Pieters
Pieters reached his highest point at Augusta during his debut appearance with a tie for fourth place, seven years ago. Sadly, he has been unable to match that success in subsequent attempts. Although Pieters participated in all eight major competitions held since then, this year marks the end of that streak as the Belgian faces missing out on them – something which hasn’t happened before since turning pro.