Southern hospitality might be put to the take a look at at Augusta National this week when golfers from the feuding LIV Golf and PGA Tour come collectively for the Masters amid an uneasy truce.
Tension might be within the air together with the candy odor of magnolias however whereas there was loads of nasty sniping within the run as much as the 12 months’s first main, each side have signalled they’re eager to place their variations apart and depart the highlight on golf.
For some that might be simpler stated than executed.
From the second the Saudi-backed circuit appeared on the scene final 12 months poaching gamers from the PGA Tour, both sides has dug in lobbing insults and lawsuits at one another.
It would appear unlikely that not even the serene Augusta National will have the ability to maintain a lid on the arduous emotions and dangerous blood.
While LIV golfers are banned from the PGA Tour, the Masters, like the opposite majors, has opened the door to those that qualify.
Sprinkled among the many Masters discipline are 18 members of the LIV Tour, many again at Augusta as former champions which comes with a lifetime exemption and contains among the recreation’s most polarizing figures like Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed and Sergio Garcia. As all the time, ultra-private Augusta National has had little to say concerning the bickering, and broadcasters have indicated they may ignore the elephant within the clubhouse, however golfers have conceded there might be no escaping the difficulty.
“The storylines are going to be obviously LIV versus PGA Tour and all that,” stated 2018 Masters champion Reed, among the many early group to leap to LIV. “But really, at the majors, top players in the world are going and playing against each other.
“It doesn’t matter what Tour they’re on. For us, at least for myself, it’s going to be business as usual.
“Would I like to have LIV be up at the top? Of course.”
If a LIV member had been to stroll away sporting the Green Jacket on Sunday it might be a significant advertising coup for the insurgent circuit which already claims the reigning British Open champion Australian Cameron Smith as its poster boy.
But there are questions over what to anticipate from the LIV contingent with the circuit having staged solely three occasions thus far in 2023, leaving considerations about aggressive rust.
Tiger Woods faces related questions having performed only one aggressive match this season.
But in relation to the Masters, Woods can by no means be dominated out.
Woods defied the percentages on the 2019 Masters when he returned from spinal fusion surgical procedure to win a fifth Green Jacket.
He did it once more final 12 months getting back from a close to deadly automotive crash that almost price him his leg, to astonish the sporting world by grinding his manner by means of 4 rounds.
The 47-year-old has regarded extra snug however his surgically reconstructed leg might be put to the take a look at at Augusta National, a structure he is aware of higher than anybody within the discipline but in addition one of many extra taxing walks on the PGA Tour.
There aren’t any such considerations hanging over world primary and defending champion Scottie Scheffler.
Last 12 months Scheffler got here to Augusta as the most well liked participant on the planet and returns in prime kind with two wins already this season together with the Players Championship, seeking to develop into solely the fourth participant to efficiently defend a Masters title.
No participant has received the Masters in consecutive years since Tiger Woods achieved the feat in 2001/02 and previous to that solely Nick Faldo (1989-90) and Jack Nicklaus (1965-66) have pulled off the Augusta double.
Once once more, one of many predominant storylines might be Rory McIlroy, who for the ninth time involves Augusta National bidding to finish the profession Grand Slam by profitable golf’s 4 main championships.
The PGA Tour’s most vocal supporter, the Northern Irishman has executed an honest job of juggling golf and duties as a frontrunner on the PGA Tour’s Player Advisory Council.
But every now and then his play has suffered because it did on the Players Championship the place he didn’t make the reduce in a match he was favorite to win.
Spain’s Jon Rahm, a three-time winner this 12 months, has cooled of late, withdrawing from the Players resulting from sickness and ending exterior the highest 30 on the Arnold Palmer and WGC however on Sunday the world quantity three is predicted to be within the hunt.