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8 LIV Golfers To Have Dropped Out Of The Masters Field From Last Year
There are 13 LIV Golf players at The Masters, but the 2024 tournament is missing eight who were in the field a year ago
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Talor Gooch is one of eight LIV golfers who was in the field for the 2023 Masters but misses the latest edition
(Image credit: Getty Images)
The 2024 edition of The Masters will once again feature many players from LIV Golf, including defending champion Jon Rahm.
However, while there are a total of 13 LIV golfers qualified for The Masters, there are fewer players from the big-money League teeing it up at Augusta National than in 2023. Here are the eight players who were in the field for last year’s event who are absent in 2024.
Abraham Ancer finished T39 at the 2023 tournament
The Mexican was 20th in the world rankings when he signed for LIV Golf in June 2022, and despite being limited to just two more world ranking appearances over the ensuring six months, he qualified for the 2023 Masters thanks to holding his place in the top 50 at the end of the year.
That earned him a fourth successive appearance at Augusta National and he made up for missing the cut in 2022 with a T39.
By the end of the tournament Ancer was 35th in the rankings, and having played in only five more events offering the points since, he has dropped to World No.209 – far short of the top 50 place he needed to hold the week before the event, and with no special invite or another way to qualify available to him, he misses out.
Talor Gooch didn’t receive a special invite to The Masters
The American has certainly caused a stir since joining LIV Golf, both on and off the course. On it, he has never had a more successful period, with three wins in 2023 enough to earn him the League’s individual championship.
Away from the action, Gooch has also made headlines, most recently with controversial comments suggesting that if Rory McIlroy wins the 2024 Masters, it would need an asterisk due to some LIV golfers missing out because of their low world rankings.
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Considering his recent success, Gooch arguably had a case to be considered for a special invite to the tournament, but it wasn’t to be, with only Joaquin Niemann from the circuit appearing via that route.
Last year, Gooch booked his place after playing at the 2022 Tour Championship while his world ranking was also high enough to ensure an invite.
With no PGA Tour access, though, and a current ranking of 550th, Gooch won’t get the chance to improve on his T34 from the 2023 tournament.
Jason Kokrak missed the cut at the 2023 Masters
Since signing for LIV Golf in July 2022, Kokrak has made a handful of world ranking appearances, including last year’s Masters. Unfortunately for the American, though, that didn’t help his chances of earning a high enough world ranking to be considered for the 2024 tournament, as he missed the cut.
Kokrak qualified for last year’s tournament thanks to finishing 2022 ranked 47th in the world. However, he is now languishing in 580th, meaning it could be some time before he gets to compete at The Masters for the fifth time.
Illness led to an early exit from the 2023 Masters for Kevin Na
Na was 34th in the world when he joined LIV Golf in time for its inaugural tournament in June 2022, and he was still in the top 50 at the end of the calendar year – enough to earn a 12th Augusta National appearance.
Sadly for the Iron Heads GC captain, it was not his most memorable. Na withdrew from the tournament after just nine holes of the opening round due to illness.
Having played only one world ranking event since, where he produced a T42 at the 2023 Saudi Open, Na’s world ranking has fallen off a cliff, and he now stands 1257th and facing a long road back to Major contention.
Louis Oosthuizen needed to withdraw from the 2023 tournament due to injury
Oosthuizen secured a last-gasp invite to the 2023 Masters after a T7 at the DP World Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Championship saw him finish 2022 50th in the world rankings. Like Na, though, his appearance was ill-fated and he had to withdraw before the second round due to injury.
Oosthuizen, who would have had a lifetime exemption to the event had he beaten Bubba Watson in a playoff in 2012, couldn’t return to the top 50 by the end of the year even with successive victories at the DP World Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Championship and AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open. That means there is no place for the South African at the 2024 tournament.
Mito Pereira qualified for last year’s tournament after finishing T3 at the 2023 PGA Championship
Pereira suffered heartbreak at the 2022 PGA Championship when a double bogey at the 72nd hole saw him finish T3 when he had been in a winning position. There was a consolation though – it guaranteed him a maiden appearance at The Masters in 2023. Pereira finished T43 at the event, but there will be no return in 2024.
That’s despite generally performing well in world ranking events since then, including T18 at the 2023 PGA Championship and two top-10 finishes on the Asian Tour.
Needing to be in the top 50 at the end of 2023, Pereira fell 64 places short, and he now stands at World No.170 – 120 places lower than the cut-off the week before this year’s event.
Thomas Pieters suffered a steep world rankings drop after singing for LIV Golf two months before the 2023 Masters
Pieters was still a DP World Tour player when he qualified for the 2023 Masters by finishing the previous year 37th in the rankings, and his fourth appearance at the tournament resulted in a T48.
By that point, Pieters had been a LIV golfer for almost two months and, slowly but surely, his world ranking had begun to suffer as a result.
By the last week of 2023, Pieters was 199th in the world, and he’s now down to World No.358, meaning there will be no return to Augusta National for the Belgian in 2024.
Harold Varner III finished T29 at the 2023 tournament
Varner III was another LIV golfer whose world ranking at the end of 2022 earned him an invite to last year’s tournament. The American finished the year in 45th despite not playing a world ranking event since signing for LIV Golf four months earlier.
He had a reasonable tournament, too, and eventually finished T29, but the chance to improve on that won’t be coming in 2024.
Varner III has played only four world ranking tournaments since that occasion and stood outside the world’s top 200 at the end of 2023. Now ranked 466th, he is forced to sit out the 2024 tournament.
Mike has over 25 years of experience in journalism, including writing on a range of sports throughout that time, such as golf, football and cricket. Now a freelance staff writer for Golf Monthly, he is dedicated to covering the game’s most newsworthy stories.
He has written hundreds of articles on the game, from features offering insights into how members of the public can play some of the world’s most revered courses, to breaking news stories affecting everything from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf to developmental Tours and the amateur game.
Mike grew up in East Yorkshire and began his career in journalism in 1997. He then moved to London in 2003 as his career flourished, and nowadays resides in New Brunswick, Canada, where he and his wife raise their young family less than a mile from his local course.
Kevin Cook’s acclaimed 2007 biography, Tommy’s Honour, about golf’s founding father and son, remains one of his all-time favourite sports books.