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Thursday begins Easter weekend at the famed Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. The azaleas will be in bloom as thousands of patrons will be on hand to watch the 2023 Masters golf tournament.
Prepare yourself for an unfolding drama as golfers from the PGA Tour tee-it up against 18 players from the rival LIV Golf tour.
The Masters traditionally invites all former champions to participate in this limited field golf tournament as long as those golfers are healthy enough to tee it up.
This week, former champions Sandy Lyle (1988) and Larry Mize (1987) have announced that this will be their final time to play in the field.
For those of us old enough to remember, Larry Mize’ win in 1987 came on the second hole of a playoff with Australia’s Greg Norman. With Norman already on the putting surface of the par-4 11th hole, Larry Mize was faced with a difficult 140-foot chip shot across the 11th green. The odds were against Mize being able to get up and down in two shots from there.
The famed Masters green jacket was moments away from being placed onto Greg Norman.
In one of The Masters’ most iconic moments, Larry Mize chipped the golf ball onto the 11th green and watched as it rolled across the green and into the cup for an improbable birdie.
The deflated Greg Norman missed his putt to tie Larry Mize.
Norman had just finished in second place for the second consecutive year.
Nine years later, Greg Norman teed-off in the 1996 Masters final round with a six shot lead. Still trying to win his first green jacket, Norman faltered on the back nine and shot a final round 78. He finished in second place for the third time as Nick Faldo won the title.
It was tough to watch the long-time World #1 golfer self-destruct during the final round in 1996. One sportswriter accurately penned the sentiments of many golf fans by saying, “It was like watching a man drown”.
Can you imagine how badly it must have felt for Greg Norman?
For the second time, Greg Norman had been involved in a memorable loss at The Masters. After the round, Faldo gave his Aussie friend a hug and said, “I don’t know what to say to you. I just want to give you a hug”.
After that loss, Greg Norman’s professional golf career started a long downhill slide. Though he finished his PGA Tour career as a Hall-of-Famer with 20 wins and two major championships (The Open in 1986 and 1993), Norman would not win another major after his collapse in Augusta in 1996.
Greg Norman became the most famous runner-up in the history of The Masters.
Though he never donned a Masters’ green jacket during his successful golf career, Greg Norman never had any trouble getting back into the grounds of Augusta National Golf Club.
Until this year, that is.
Greg Norman is now the CEO of golf’s team of bad guys. We know them as the LIV Golf tour.
Norman is the man credited with luring former Masters champions such as three-time winner Phil Mickelson, two-time winner Bubba Watson plus Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia, and Charl Schwartzel to LIV Golf.
In addition to that group of golfers, the LIV Golf team is represented by other professionals who have won a major championship during the past five years. Cam Smith, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka will play in Augusta this week based on that criterion.
In all, the LIV Golf tour features 18 golfers in The Masters field of 88 players this weekend. Excluding the seven amateurs invited to participate, there will be 63 PGA stars competing against 18 “outlaws” from the LIV Golf tour.
This year, The Masters, PGA, US Open, and British Open will permit LIV Tour golfers to participate as long as they meet each tournament’s qualifications.
However, the Chairman of Augusta National Golf Club confirmed on Wednesday that Greg Norman was not offered his customary pass to attend this week’s golf tournament.
Fred Ridley (leader of the Augusta Green Coats) explained:
“We did not extend an invitation to Mr. Norman. The primary issue is that I want the focus this week to be on the Masters competition, on the great players that are participating, the greatest players in the world, which, by our decision in December, we ensured that we were going to honor and be consistent with our invitation criteria.”
Translated – Greg Norman will not be seen drumming up support for his golf league or talking with any current PGA Tour golfer who may be considering a move to the other tour.
This week at The Masters, the major interaction of the two pro golf leagues could become as competitive as the Ryder Cup.
The LIV Golf tour golfers do not need CEO Greg Norman on the grounds to motivate his players to victory this weekend.
LIV Golf has doled out more than $1 billion in signing bonuses to lure most of its golfers to leave the PGA Tour. Fan favorite Phil Mickelson snared a whopping $200 million. Once making the switch, Lefty has been treated as persona non grata by many of his former PGA Tour comrades. Phil Mickelson’s awkward responses to questions from the media have not helped, either.
Mickelson’s departure was seen as opening the flood gates for other big name golfers to leave the PGA Tour. Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, and Cam Smith each grabbed $100 million or more in signing bonuses offered by the fledgling world tour.
The less-than-objective media (as it is prone to do) has chosen sides. The media continues to, effectively, tar and feather the group which it feels are now golf’s bad guys.
As I have stated in this website in previous occasions, the money being offered and paid by LIV Golf made the financial decision rather simple for some of the golfers who made the switch.
For example, if the 52-year old Phil Mickelson could win four PGA Champions (senior) events this year, he would earn about $1.5 million playing golf.
If Phil Mickelson earns 5% on the $200 million signing bonus he received from LIV Golf, he makes $10 million this year and every year for the rest of his life without having to win another golf tournament.
What would you do?
Every professional golfer had to answer similar questions when deciding whether to jump ship to join the Pirate LIV Golf tour. In most cases, the decision boiled down to long-term financial security due to the power of compound interest. Nothing more.
Yet, the sports media has piled-on to the exiting group of pro golfers and has attempted to characterize them as villains trying to kill the PGA Tour.
Give me a break.
In case you haven’t kept up with golf recently, the PGA Tour agreed to make some serious upgrades in tournament payouts this year and for years to come. Without the advent of competition for top golfers, the PGA Tour had been banking a ton of money for itself.
The remaining PGA Tour professionals are benefiting from higher purses this year and not having to face many LIV Golfers for a share of the prize money every week.
Sure, it’s OK to dislike the Saudi-backed funding of the LIV Tour. However, remember that concept the next time you fill-up your automobile with gasoline by understanding that it may have been refined from oil imported from Saudi Arabia.
This “PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf” faux war has benefited the wallets of the players on both tours – at least until LIV Golf waves the white flag (as I expect) within the next year or two.
Like professional spring football leagues such as the XFL and USFL, the LIV Golf Tour is losing money at an incredible pace. The trend is not their friend, either. LIV Golf is doomed to a short life as the Saudi financial backers will eventually come to their senses.
The Masters is known for its extremely tight control over nearly every aspect of this incredible spring golf tournament.
Chairman Fred Ridley’s admission that he wanted to keep LIV Golf’s leader, Greg Norman, outside the gates of the hallowed grounds in Augusta, Georgia this weekend will serve as rallying cry to the LIV golf brigade.
However, the LIV Golf team would be wise to keep their comments and pep talks in the locker room if they expect to be invited back into The Masters field next season.
I am hoping that Sunday’s final round at The Masters will feature a stretch run with one or more LIV Golf stars pushing a few of the PGA’s best players down to the wire. It would make for great television, too!
The weather forecast for Augusta, Georgia this weekend is calling for several rain delays and colder conditions. It might take until Monday to complete this year’s tournament.
This weekend’s final rounds at The Masters could morph into a Ryder Cup atmosphere. Golf fans on the grounds and at home may begin to choose sides between the 63 “good guys” of the PGA Tour and the 18 heels of LIV Golf.
After making the snarky comments about LIV Golf’s CEO Greg Norman, I would love to see Augusta National Golf Club Chairman Fred Ridley sitting in Butler Cabin after the final round of The Masters watching as a LIV Golf player is fitted with this year’s green jacket.
Now that would be must-see TV!