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Diagram of the major investors, fixers and political allies and patrons that are connected to LIV Golf. Public Investment Fund Trump World Performance54 LIV Golfers PLUS 45 OTHERS CONSULTANTS McKinsey & Company Public Investment Fund Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan White & Case M. Klein & Company Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Majed al-Sorour Newcastle […] More
The major champion used scientific research to engineer prodigious drives, but enters the Masters knowing a return to the top of the leaderboards will take workshopping, too.AUGUSTA, Ga. — It was only two years ago that Bryson DeChambeau arrived at the Masters Tournament as the reigning U.S. Open champion, having earned that title by bludgeoning Winged Foot Golf Club in New York with prodigious 350-yard drives to win by six strokes. He was the new face of golf and promised to shape the sport in his image, which at the time was a musclebound 240-pounder who had gained 45 pounds and swung so hard it almost hurt to watch.DeChambeau, a physics major in college at Southern Methodist, preached that he had used scientific research to construct a more powerful swing and would remake the paradigm of the modern golfer: Someday 400-yard drives would be routine and render many traditional courses obsolete. He predicted that his imposing length off the tee would make the timeless Augusta National Golf Club play like a par 67 rather than its par 72 on the scorecard.His brash, swashbuckling style energized golf and the fervent, cheering galleries that followed him dwarfed those of every other golfer (Tiger Woods was injured). His fan group also skewed noticeably younger, a demographic shift welcomed by the stewards of the game. DeChambeau reveled in the role of pied piper and pledged that his golf revolution was in a nascent stage.“It won’t stop; there’s just no way it will stop,” DeChambeau said.DeChambeau practicing during the 2021 Masters, when he finished tied for 46th place.Doug Mills/The New York TimesOn Wednesday, in a final practice session before his fifth consecutive Masters, DeChambeau sauntered up the eighth fairway alone. Trailing him by 50 yards was his caddie; he had no playing partners. There did not appear to be a single fan accompanying him. As he approached a grandstand with about 1,000 seats overlooking the eighth green, there were 21 people witnessing his arrival. No one offered applause.It was as if those looking down at him were not sure who he was, which might be understandable since DeChambeau is now one to two shirt sizes smaller and maybe 30 pounds lighter — possibly more. Late last year, he admitted he lost 20 pounds in one month alone by eschewing his former protein shake, overeating diet.Whatever the cause, and the golf community has multiple theories, in the last two years DeChambeau has become a shell of his former self in more ways than one. At the 2021 Masters, he finished tied for 46th with three rounds of 75 or higher. In 2022, he missed the cut with an eight-over par 80 in the second round. So much for Augusta playing like a par 67. At the 2021 U.S. Open, he led with nine holes remaining and then collapsed as he shot eight over par to finish the tournament.He tied for eighth in last year’s British Open but other than that his highest finish in a major championship since his runaway victory at the 2020 U.S. Open has been a tie for 26th.Asked if he could win this week, DeChambeau answered: “I don’t come here to finish second, but I will say that I’ve got a lot of work to do before I can get there.”Doug Mills/The New York TimesBefore joining the LIV Golf circuit last June, he had missed the cut in four of his five PGA Tour events. In LIV competitions since, he has never finished higher than 10th. Wrist surgery contributed to his woes, as did a bout of vertigo later corrected with a sinus surgery. In November, his father, Jon, who had taught his son to play golf, died at 63.But earlier this week, a grinning DeChambeau arrived at Augusta National and professed himself healthier than he has been in years. He advised anyone trying to get stronger to see a doctor for a blood test that would measure food sensitivity because DeChambeau believes he was eating foods that caused inflammation and injury.The highs and lows of his golf game, he said, have taught him that “the only thing consistent in life is inconsistency.” It is the kind of quizzical thing DeChambeau has been saying since he stamped himself as a rising star in the sport as the N.C.A.A. Division I individual champion and U.S. Amateur champion in 2015.As for shortening Augusta National to a par 67 because of his length off the tee — and then shooting eight-over par in his last Masters round — DeChambeau did not admit to any contrition for the comment.“I don’t think I regret anything,” he said, adding: “Because of that statement people think I don’t have respect for the course. Are you kidding me?”He continued: “With the distance I was hitting it, I thought there was a possibility. I learn from all of my mistakes.”DeChambeau walked to the first tee during a practice round at this year’s Masters.Doug Mills/The New York TimesHe has clearly tempered his expectations. Asked if he could win this week, he answered: “I don’t come here to finish second, but I will say that I’ve got a lot of work to do before I can get there.”When DeChambeau had completed his practice round after nine holes, he departed the last hole in silence, despite the green being surrounded by a few hundred fans. He stopped at one point when a few fans asked for his autograph. One in the group was Matthew Fehr, 16, of Alamo, Calif., who wanted DeChambeau to sign the cover of Golf Magazine from March 2021.Fehr collects athletes’ autographs and has had DeChambeau sign for him three times before, all during the height of the golfer’s popularity.Asked to assess what he thought had gone wrong for DeChambeau in the last few years, Fehr said: “It was cool to see him hit the ball that far and he definitely got the fans’ attention. But I don’t think what he was doing — the workout regime and the diet — was sustainable. Or healthy.”Fehr added: “You know, in athletics there are checks and balances.”DeChambeau’s Wednesday practice round drew little fanfare.Doug Mills/The New York Times More
The course at Augusta National is like a living entity, growing and shifting regularly. The risky 13th hole, for example, is now 35 yards longer and even riskier.The golfer Brendon Todd takes comfort in the memories of practice rounds he played at Augusta National Golf Club with José Maria Olazábal, who won the Masters Tournament in 1994 and 1999.The course was shorter when Olazábal was dominant, and the difference between the longest hitters and everyone else wasn’t that large, Todd said Olazábal told him.“He said everyone hit the ball the same distance, and it was shorter back then,” said Todd, who has played in three Masters tournaments. “It was about accuracy. It was a second-shot golf course. That’s still the case today.”But there’s a big difference: The course is about 600 yards longer than it was 30 years ago and is now at 7,545 yards. And the big hitters absolutely bomb the ball today, which has the United States Golf Association considering changing how far golf balls fly. Todd, who ranks 203rd on driving distance on the PGA Tour this season, is not one of them.“On the hardest holes — 1, 5, 17, 18 — the big hitters hit driver and 8-iron,” Todd said. “I hit driver and a 5- or 6-iron. That’s not coming down soft enough on the greens.”The Masters lives in our imaginations as the only major venue that never changes. It’s an annual rite of spring to see azaleas bloom and pimento-cheese sandwiches in patrons’ hands, and anyone lucky enough to be invited to play — or even score a badge to watch — treats their time going around Augusta National with reverence.This is the course that Dr. Alister MacKenzie, among the best Golden Age architects, and Bobby Jones, the great amateur champion, created to host an invitational tournament that would bring together the best golfers.All of that is true, but the course itself is like a living entity, growing, shifting and changing regularly. It looks little today like it did when the first tournament was played in 1934.No fewer than 10 architects have made changes to the course, and even more players and designers have consulted on modifications. These have included Perry Maxwell, credited with significant early changes; Jack Nicklaus, the six-time champion; and Tom Fazio, the current architect.This year, all eyes are on the 35-yard-longer 13th hole, which over the years has had daring Sunday charges, like Phil Mickelson threading a shot through a stand of pine trees and on to the green as he mounted a charge to win his third Masters in 2010, as well as plenty of ignominious failures as balls dropped into Rae’s Creek in front of the green.The par-5 hole may be too long for such excitement this year, at least for a majority of the field, which doesn’t drive the ball as far and accurately as Rory McIlroy.“The length is a big thing,” said Matthew McClean, who received an invitation to play the Masters because he won the 2022 United States Mid-Amateur Golf Championship. “It’s long. The most underestimated thing about Augusta is how hard it is off the tee.”McClean, an accomplished player from Northern Ireland, said he hit his drives around 290 to 300 yards on average. And that isn’t enough. “There’s a myth that you can just hammer a driver around the course,” he said. “That’s not true. It’s as demanding a golf course as I’ve played anywhere.”The 13th hole has been lengthened to 545 yards. (It was 480 yards in the first playing of the tournament.) That doesn’t seem that long for the best players in the world, but it’s the angle of the hole that’s tricky. It bends around to the left with danger for the player who hits it too far to that side, but there is also trouble too far right.That angle and the added distance this year may have players going for something less than the heroic shot that Mickelson made in 2010, preferring instead to hit something short of the famous creek and then pitching it over.That’s strategic golf, and how Zach Johnson played Augusta’s par 5s en route to his Masters victory in 2007. His strategy was to hit wedges into every par 5 on the course. It was good enough for a two-shot victory over Tiger Woods, but it wasn’t the most exciting tournament in memory.Woods practiced on the 11th hole earlier this week. The course at Augusta National is about 600 yards longer than it was 30 years ago and is now at 7,545 yards.Doug Mills/The New York Times“I don’t think it’s better for the tournament,” said Jose Campra, a veteran caddie who has worked at the Masters for Ángel Cabrera, a past champion, and twice for Emiliano Grillo.“We’re going to see only 5 percent of the players going for the green on 13. The rest are going to lay up,” he said, meaning they will have the ball land short of the creek so they can hit over it with their next shot.That may be smart playing, but there’s also a feeling that it could reduce the excitement. Sundays at the Masters are known, after all, for the roars that ripple across the course, with every charge or failure.“There’s going to be less risk-reward,” Campra said. “Before, we’d see a lot of guys hit it into the water on 13. That was excitement on Sunday. You used to have a lot of guys take it over the trees on 13 and go for it in two. But not a lot anymore because they can’t cover the distance.”Bernhard Langer, a two-time Masters champion, called it his favorite hole.“One of my luckiest golf shots in my career was on 13,” he said. “It was Saturday in 1985, and I was trying to hook my tee shot around the corner. It went kind of straight and ended up on the right edge of the fairway. I didn’t have a good lie. But I was 6 behind. I asked my caddie, ‘What do you think?’ He said 3-wood, but look at that lie. I said I know it’s not easy to get a 3-wood up and over Rae’s Creek.”But Langer gave it a try. It didn’t look promising at first. “I hit it a little thin. It never got more than four feet off the ground. I said, no way it’s getting over. Back then, there used to be a little mound. It bounced over the creek onto the green. I made about a 60-footer for an eagle. I birdied the next hole and 15. I was only 2 behind going into Sunday.”That would be Langer’s first Masters victory. But one thing he also recalled: He was never overpowering the course.“When I used to be paired with Tiger, people said Tiger is intimidating, but I never felt that,” he said. “He was playing his game. I was playing my game. He out drove me by a huge number. I know I can’t hit it 325 yards.”Many shorter hitters this week know that playing their own game is the key.“Our game is our game, and our strengths are our strengths,” said Todd, who did not make it into this year’s tournament.In 2021, when he made the cut and finished tied for 46th, he said he stuck to his strengths.“I hit more fairways,” Todd said. “I put my long clubs in the center of the greens. I played the par 5s well with my wedges and made some birdies.”“When we’re fortunate to play a course like Augusta, its practice and experience,” he added. “At the Masters, there are 20 to 25 guys who have played the last eight to 10 majors, and they have an experienced edge on you. That’s why you see the same class of players who do well.” More
An impressive Scottie Scheffler is in good position to repeat, and Tiger Woods is capable of making another run.The best players in the world will assemble again this week at Augusta National Golf Club for the first of the year’s four major championships.Will a marquee name come through and add to his legacy? Or will an unheralded player emerge? It’s happened before at the Masters Tournament and will likely happen again.Here are five players to watch.Scottie SchefflerScheffler, 26, the defending champion and No. 1 player in the world, is on quite a roll.He has ended up in the top four in four of his last five starts, including two victories. The one occasion he didn’t record a high finish was in February when he tied for 12th at the Genesis Invitational in Pacific Palisades, Calif.His performance in last month’s Players Championship was especially impressive. He seized a two-stroke advantage with a seven-under 65 on Saturday. On Sunday, Scheffler made five consecutive birdies starting at the eighth hole to pretty much put the tournament away.“I knew the conditions were going to get really hard late,” he said, “and I did a really good job of staying patient and not trying to force things.”Scheffler was in position for another win two weeks ago at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in Texas before he fell to Sam Burns. If he were to prevail again at Augusta, he would become the first consecutive champion since Tiger Woods in 2002.Tiger WoodsRyan Kang/Associated PressTiger WoodsSpeaking of Woods, how can he possibly not be someone to keep a close eye on?As he’s made clear, from here on we’re likely to see him at only the four major championships and perhaps another tournament here and there. Which is similar to the type of limited playing schedule Ben Hogan maintained after his car accident in 1949. Woods, 47, has played in only one event, the Genesis Invitational. He tied for 45th.It might be easy to assume Woods won’t be a factor this week.It might also be a mistake.In 2019, he surprised the golfing world by winning his fifth green jacket, second to the six won by Jack Nicklaus. And if there is anyone who knows Augusta National, it would be Woods.One of the keys will be how the leg he injured in a car accident in 2021 holds up. He started last year’s Masters with a more than respectable 71 before ending up in a tie for 47th.However he fares, it will be fascinating to watch.Rory McIlroyMike Mulholland/Getty ImagesRory McIlroyEvery year, it becomes more difficult to comprehend how McIlroy, one of the most talented players in the game, has failed to pick up a major title since the 2014 P.G.A. Championship.The Irish star was 25 when he prevailed that year by a stroke over Phil Mickelson. The victory gave him four majors.He is now 33.It looked like the drought might end in last year’s British Open.Heading into the final round, he was tied with Viktor Hovland, both up by four over Cameron Smith. Except McIlroy recorded only two birdies on Sunday, while Smith had eight in firing a 64. McIlroy, who could manage no better than a 70, finished third, two shots back.A victory at Augusta would make him the sixth player to capture the career grand slam (winning all four majors) the others being Ben Hogan, Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Gene Sarazen. He would also atone for what happened in the final round of the 2011 Masters. Up by four strokes entering the day, he fell apart with an 80.With his talent, McIlroy is destined to win another major sooner or later.Jordan SpiethDustin Safranek/USA Today Sports, via ReutersJordan SpiethSpieth, 29, is another star who has experienced a drought in the majors that wasn’t expected.Go back to the summer of 2017 when Spieth, 23 at the time, rallied to win the British Open. That gave him three majors.He’s still stuck at three.Each round seems to provide an assortment of errant shots and magical recoveries. How he will fare from day to day, from shot to shot, remains a mystery.Spieth has played some of his finest golf at Augusta National. Since he captured the title in 2015 with a record-tying score of 18-under 270, he has finished three times in the top three (2016, 2018 and 2021).He will also have the calendar working in his favor. On Easter Sunday in 2021, Spieth won the Texas Open. On Easter Sunday last year, he won the RBC Heritage in South Carolina.The final round of the Masters this year falls on Easter.Jason DayRichard Heathcote/Getty ImagesJason DayDay, from Australia, is looking more and more like his old self, and now he’s coming back to a course where he has enjoyed success.A former No. 1 player in the world, Day, 35, has finished in the top 10 in five of his last six starts. At the match play event, he defeated four opponents before Scheffler rallied to knock him out in the quarterfinals.Still, it was another encouraging week.“It was a great step in the right direction,” Day said. “It opens my eyes to the fact that I have a few things I need to work on, short-game-wise, putting-wise.”Day has been plagued by health issues over the years, and he has won one major, the P.G.A. Championship, in 2015. At the Masters, he tied for second in 2011 and finished third two years later.He is trying to become the second player from his country — the other was the 2013 champion, Adam Scott — to win at Augusta National. More
He won the Masters in 2008 and is now the lead golf analyst for CBS.Trevor Immelman didn’t appear to be on his game when he arrived at Augusta National Golf Club in April 2008. He’d just missed the cut at a tournament in Houston and in eight starts that year on the PGA Tour, had recorded only one top 20.No matter. He won the Masters Tournament by three strokes over Tiger Woods for his second tour victory. His first came at the Cialis Western Open in 2006.Immelman of South Africa, who has had many injuries, is no longer an active player. He has replaced Nick Faldo to become the lead analyst for CBS which will cover the Masters that begins on Thursday.Immelman, 43, reflected recently on his win in 2008 and role in the booth.The following conversation has been edited and condensed.When you think of that week, what comes to mind?In a lot of ways, it still feels like it was just yesterday. That obviously was an incredible week for my family and I, life changing really.Where did the magic suddenly come from?I won a huge tournament in South Africa at the end of 2007, and all of a sudden I started having some breathing issues. I had a tumor on my diaphragm. I had to have surgery. Thankfully, the tumor was benign. It took three months before I could start swinging again. I made an extremely slow start in ’08, but at the Houston Open, I only missed the cut by one shot and something clicked for me there. I went to Augusta feeling a little better about things.What did it feel like on Sunday to walk down the fairway at 18?It was the first time all week that I came out of this bubble or the zone or whatever you want to call it, and I started to recognize friends and family members and hear all the cheers. I’d watched all my heroes make that walk and win that tournament, and now for that to actually be happening to me was so mega-, mega-surreal.From left, Brian Anderson, Trevor Immelman and Charles Barkley on set at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Fla., last year.Mike Ehrmann/Getty ImagesWho did you hear from afterward that might have surprised you?Yogi Berra, how about that? I had played with him at the Pro-Am at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, so him and I had kept in touch. He gave me a ring, which was awesome.Was it tough to give up being a player?When I played and competed in a bunch of Masters and on tours all over the world, I gave it absolutely everything I could. To the point where I broke my body to pieces. So I can put my head on the pillow at night and be comfortable that I got as much out of my talent that I could. It also isn’t painful because I really enjoy this new chapter.So it was really your body breaking down, not your game?They go hand in hand. I blew out my wrist a couple of years after I won the Masters. I had to get a few surgeries on it and was just never quite the same.As of the second week of March, who are the favorites for Augusta?It’s quite open. It’s not like when I used to play, when it was 90 percent chance Tiger Woods was going to win and the rest of the field had a 10 percent chance. We’ve got 10 guys I believe are coming in there as favorites.Is there an international player we haven’t heard of who is a star on the horizon?His name is S.H. Kim. He’s 24. I got to spend some time with him this year. He is a stud. Has enough power to work the ball both ways, solid short game, and I would be extremely surprised if he doesn’t make the [2024] Presidents Cup team [the international competition held every two years].What is the toughest part of being lead analyst?Being able to take a side and have an opinion when the moment is right. There will be times when something polarizing happens and, as lead analyst, you need to be able to comment on what you think is right. You can’t always ride the fence. More
The talk at the Masters Tournament is about possible changes to the ball, the week’s stormy forecast and the par-3 course’s face-lift.AUGUSTA, Ga. — Even at this year’s Masters Tournament, there are debates beyond LIV Golf, and there may not be one more inflamed than the conflagration over the future of the golf ball.Last month, worn down by gaudy statistics, the R&A and the U.S. Golf Association made a proposal: Within a few years, elite players should use a ball that does not fly quite so far.It did not sit well.“Let us be athletic,” Bubba Watson, a two-time Masters winner, said in an interview on the day of the announcement. “Let us try to come up with new ways to hit the ball better, straighter, farther.”Justin Thomas, the winner of two P.G.A. Championships, was even more pointed about the idea, which supporters estimated would cut the tee shots of top golfers by about 15 yards.“They’re basing it off the top 0.1 percent of all golfers. You know what I mean?” he said. “I don’t know how many of y’all consistently play golf in here, but I promise none of you have come in from the golf course and said, you know, I’m hitting it so far and straight today that golf’s just not even fun anymore.”But it was not until Tuesday that the world heard from Tiger Woods, one of Thomas’s closest friends in golf.“The guys are going to become more athletic,” Woods said. “Everyone is going to get bigger, stronger, faster as the generations go on.”A change “should have happened a long time ago,” Woods said. A few moments later, he added: “The amateurs should be able to have fun and still hit the golf ball far, but we can be regulated about how far we hit it.”Part of Woods’s concern traces to the limits of courses. Augusta National Golf Club had the resources and enough space to add 35 yards to the 13th hole. Not every course — not even every great course — does. Besides, Woods suggested, an altered ball might make for a better, more sophisticated sport.This year’s 13th hole was lengthened by 35 yards.Doug Mills/The New York Times“On tour, it’s exciting to see Rory McIlroy hit it 340 yards on every hole,” Woods said. “But does it challenge us and separate the guys who can really hit the ball in the middle of the face and control their shots? I think if you roll the ball back a little bit, you’ll see that the better ball-strikers will have more of an advantage over the guys who miss it a little bit.”If the governing bodies proceed with the change — a decision is still many months away — the burden will shift to golf ball manufacturers to come up with products for professionals that comply with the rule, which would generally ban balls that travel more than 317 yards when struck at 127 miles per hour.The companies are already registering worries but thinking through how they will react.“We’re going to be looking at it and researching it and understanding what we would do and how we would respond to it,” Dan Murphy, the president and chief executive of Bridgestone Golf, said in an interview by the Augusta National clubhouse Tuesday afternoon. “I don’t think we have a choice.”Like many other manufacturers, Murphy worries about the risk of confusing consumers with a new variety of equipment options. But Bridgestone expects that Woods, who uses its products, will play a role in designing any new equipment, helping the company to refine aerodynamics, trajectory, feel and spin.“He has a longstanding catalog of the golf ball: He’s seen it change from balata to the solid-core technology in the early 2000s that he played so well with, so from that standpoint, we would definitely rely on him to give us feedback,” said Adam Rehberg, a Bridgestone official who works on research and design. “We still have to make sure the ball can do everything they need.”If, of course, they ultimately need it.The groupings are out. Plan accordingly.The LIV players Phil Mickelson, left, Harold Varner III, middle, and Talor Gooch, will be in separate groups at the Masters.Doug Mills/The New York TimesTournament play will begin on Thursday at 8 a.m. Eastern time, when Mike Weir, the 2003 Masters champion, and Kevin Na, a LIV Golf team captain, will tee off at No. 1. But most of the other players Thursday and Friday will be in groups of three. Here are the most eye-catching groups (All times Eastern):9:36 a.m.: Mackenzie Hughes, Shane Lowry and Thomas Pieters (12:48 p.m. Friday)10:18 a.m.: Viktor Hovland, Xander Schauffele and Tiger Woods (1:24 p.m. Friday)10:42 a.m.: Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas and Cameron Young (1:48 p.m. Friday)10:54 a.m.: Sungjae Im, Hideki Matsuyama and Cameron Smith (2 p.m. Friday)11:54 a.m.: Brooks Koepka, Danny Willett and Gary Woodland (8:48 a.m. Friday)12:24 p.m.: Tom Hoge, Si Woo Kim and Phil Mickelson (9:12 a.m. Friday)1:12 p.m.: Corey Conners, Dustin Johnson and Justin Rose (10:06 a.m. Friday)1:24 p.m.: Matt Fitzpatrick, Collin Morikawa and Will Zalatoris (10:18 a.m. Friday)1:36 p.m.: Sam Bennett, Max Homa and Scottie Scheffler (10:30 a.m. Friday)1:48 p.m.: Sam Burns, Tom Kim and Rory McIlroy (10:42 a.m. Friday)2 p.m.: Tony Finau, Tommy Fleetwood and Jordan Spieth (10:54 a.m. Friday).ESPN will broadcast the Thursday and Friday rounds beginning at 3 p.m. The Masters Tournament’s website will also stream coverage from Augusta National.The weather is looking like a big problem.The weather forecast for the tournament, especially Saturday, was not promising.Doug Mills/The New York TimesIf you are planning to watch the tournament all day Saturday, it might be time to consider a backup plan now that the forecast has gone from bad to worse.Thursday, Augusta National’s official forecast says, has a 40 percent chance of afternoon thunderstorms. Friday will bring a 70 percent chance of precipitation, including isolated thunderstorms.Then there is Saturday: “Cloudy, colder and breezy with a 90 percent chance of rain. Rain could be heavy at times.” And winds could gust up to 25 miles per hour.Also, the predicted high is 52 degrees.Spring!The par-3 course got a face-lift.Jon Rahm during the par-3 event last year. No player has won the par-3 contest and a green jacket in the same year.Doug Mills/The New York TimesNo. 13 on Augusta National’s primary course has gotten most of the attention this week as players have sized up a hole that is 35 yards longer this year. (Asked on Monday what he made of the hole, Fred Couples replied: “Well, if I were 30, I’d probably be excited about it. At 63, I think it’s an incredible hole. I won’t go for it.”)But on Wednesday afternoon, the nine-hole, par-3 course, tucked away in a corner of Augusta National, will take center stage. The course’s informal Wednesday contest, first held in 1960, is a Masters ritual and popular with players and fans alike. The course is playing differently this year, though, after some off-season changes, including a rerouting of the first five holes and new putting surfaces. Augusta National said the refurbished greens, which now have a different kind of bentgrass, will be a “testing ground,” perhaps foreshadowing changes to the primary course.Augusta National also said it had installed a new irrigation system and expanded the complex for restrooms and sales of concessions and merchandise.“It was unbelievable,” Watson said in an interview last month after he saw the redesigned area.“How did they do it in 150 days?” Watson, who now plays on the LIV Golf circuit, asked later. “I don’t know. It’s money and manpower, that’s how they do it.”On that much, LIV and PGA Tour players might agree.They might also agree that anyone who wants to win the 2023 Masters should perhaps try to finish second on Wednesday: No par-3 contest victor has gone on to win the green jacket in the same year. More
The Official World Golf Ranking is a dividing line between LIV Golf and the sport’s establishment. Since the metric helps determine access to major tournaments, the argument is hardly academic.AUGUSTA, Ga. — Since he stepped into a tee box near London last June, Dustin Johnson has earned at least $36 million in prize money, the most of any golfer in the world.He has also seen his standing in the Official World Golf Ranking plunge, from No. 15 to No. 69.Less than three years after his Masters Tournament victory, Johnson is hardly playing poorly. But his collapse in the ranking — one he says he no longer bothers to monitor — is a calculable consequence of his choice to leave the PGA Tour for LIV Golf, the league bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund that debuted last year.LIV has gleefully rocked men’s golf and reveled in challenging some of the old order. The circuit, though, is finding that its independent streak can go only so far, and it is seeking at least some favor and special dispensations from the industry’s most hidebound gatekeepers.Those allowances have not come yet. LIV asked to be included in the ranking system about nine months ago, but executives are still weighing its application, and players like Johnson are slipping in the formula-based standings since they are appearing in few, if any, events that award ranking points. In golf, ranking is not merely a matter of ego; for many players, it affects the values of sponsorship deals and serves as a crucial gateway for entry to major tournaments such as the Masters, which will begin Thursday at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia.“They need to do something to figure it out because, obviously, we have great players playing over here, and we’re not getting any points for events, and we should be,” said Johnson, who plays on the LIV circuit with the past major champions Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson and Cameron Smith, who, at No. 6, is the highest-ranked LIV player.“They just need to figure out a system that’s fair for everyone,” Johnson, who spent 135 weeks at the No. 1, said in an interview last month, when he figured his play these days warranted a position around No. 5.A potential affiliation between LIV and the O.W.G.R., which a handful of elite tours and governing bodies control, is being debated privately. But whenever a resolution comes, its ripple effects could shape LIV’s allure to players and the majesty of the Masters and the other major men’s tournaments: the British Open, the P.G.A. Championship and the U.S. Open.LIV and its supporters contend that if the league’s players are routinely excluded from major tournaments because of a spat over rankings, the reputations of golf’s pre-eminent tests will erode and, in turn, public interest in the competitions will fade. The Saudi league’s critics, though, are skeptical that LIV’s 54-hole, no-cut tournaments should be readily compared to the 72-hole events that are commonplace on established circuits like the PGA Tour.Players earn ranking points each time they compete in eligible events over a rolling two-year period. So as the months have progressed and LIV golfers have appeared in fewer sanctioned competitions, their banked points have declined, and they have slid down the list.Bryson DeChambeau, the 2020 U.S. Open winner, arrived at last year’s Masters at No. 19. He has fallen to No. 155. Koepka, a four-time major tournament winner who prevailed at LIV’s event in Florida over the weekend, missed the Masters cut last spring but was No. 16 afterward. A former world No. 1, Koepka is now No. 118. Patrick Reed, the 2018 Masters champion, played Augusta last year ranked 31st; he now stands at No. 70.“I think a lot of people are against them having world ranking points,” Jon Rahm, the current third-ranked player and an occasionally fearsome critic of the formula, said late last year. “I’m not necessarily against it, but there should be adjustments,” maybe, he suggested, by prorating the available points for 54-hole events.“I think a lot of people are against them having world ranking points,” Jon Rahm said about LIV’s players.Mark Baker/Associated PressBut Rahm, a PGA Tour star, added of LIV: “They do have some incredible players. To say that Dustin wasn’t one of the best players this year would be a mistake.”Bickering over golf rankings is not quite as old as the sport itself, but it hardly started with LIV’s founding.The system that became the O.W.G.R. debuted in 1986 as the Sony Ranking. Ostensibly created to sort the planet’s best golfers — the PGA Tour money list had been regarded as the most sensible measure of a player’s fortunes — the ranking was initially seen in some quarters as a glossy way for a powerful agent to elevate the profiles of his firm’s clients. There was even a derisive nickname for the system: the “Phony Ranking.”.css-1v2n82w{max-width:600px;width:calc(100% – 40px);margin-top:20px;margin-bottom:25px;height:auto;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;font-family:nyt-franklin;color:var(–color-content-secondary,#363636);}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-1v2n82w{margin-left:20px;margin-right:20px;}}@media only screen and (min-width:1024px){.css-1v2n82w{width:600px;}}.css-161d8zr{width:40px;margin-bottom:18px;text-align:left;margin-left:0;color:var(–color-content-primary,#121212);border:1px solid var(–color-content-primary,#121212);}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-161d8zr{width:30px;margin-bottom:15px;}}.css-tjtq43{line-height:25px;}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-tjtq43{line-height:24px;}}.css-x1k33h{font-family:nyt-cheltenham;font-size:19px;font-weight:700;line-height:25px;}.css-1hvpcve{font-size:17px;font-weight:300;line-height:25px;}.css-1hvpcve em{font-style:italic;}.css-1hvpcve strong{font-weight:bold;}.css-1hvpcve a{font-weight:500;color:var(–color-content-secondary,#363636);}.css-1c013uz{margin-top:18px;margin-bottom:22px;}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-1c013uz{font-size:14px;margin-top:15px;margin-bottom:20px;}}.css-1c013uz a{color:var(–color-signal-editorial,#326891);-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font-weight:500;font-size:16px;}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-1c013uz a{font-size:13px;}}.css-1c013uz a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}What we consider before using anonymous sources. Do the sources know the information? What’s their motivation for telling us? Have they proved reliable in the past? Can we corroborate the information? Even with these questions satisfied, The Times uses anonymous sources as a last resort. The reporter and at least one editor know the identity of the source.Learn more about our process.Views eventually softened, and now there is little mistaking the ranking’s widespread, if sometimes begrudging, acceptance, or its links to the golf establishment. Its governing board includes the leaders of the P.G.A. of America, the R&A, the U.S. Golf Association and some of the world’s most elite tours.The O.W.G.R. has said almost nothing publicly about LIV’s application. By the end of last year, though, the ranking’s technical committee had completed a review of LIV’s application, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the confidential process. The milestone shifted the application to another committee, this one including representatives of the major tournaments, to render a verdict.The technical committee concluded that the new circuit easily cleared some of the standards for inclusion, such as sponsorship from a tour that may propose new members (in this case, the Asian Tour) and a commitment to abide by golf’s playing rules. But the panel, according to people involved in the process, flagged what some members regarded as serious shortcomings in LIV’s model, which some thought made it a “closed shop.”Officials fretted over the absence of an open qualifying school — tournaments that can allow players to join a circuit — before the start of LIV seasons, although league officials have argued that their “promotions” event suffices. And beyond the 54-hole nature of LIV tournaments, there were widespread worries about the league’s reliance on 48-player fields, which are far smaller than typical for professional circuits, and concerns that LIV golfers’ ownership stakes around the league could affect performances. Even now, skeptics note, LIV has not been around long enough to participate in the system.But LIV executives and players have focused on a particular lifeline: that the ranking’s most senior leaders have absolute discretion over admissions, including the authority to set aside any eligibility guideline.The major tournaments that use the rankings as an entry method have similar powers and are not obligated to employ the formula in the future, but no organizer has even hinted at plans to abandon the ranking. Unless Augusta National, for instance, alters its protocol, many of the 18 LIV players in the Masters field this year could be left out as soon as 2024.A handful face far less risk. In Augusta, many golfers and executives anticipate that past Masters winners will maintain their traditional lifetime privileges to play the tournament. But less renowned LIV players know that this turn at Augusta National could be their last — unless, for example, they finish in the top 12 this year.“It amps up the pressure,” said Harold Varner III, who made his Masters debut last year but said he had accepted the possibility of being left out of future major fields. (“My goal over all through all of this was, what was best for golf — and getting paid,” he said.)“It amps up the pressure,” Harold Varner III said of potentially being excluded from future major tournaments.Doug Mills/The New York TimesEven players who have proven capable of winning majors have confessed to fears that they could eventually be left out of some of golf’s most venerated events.“Augusta is one of the places where you want to play every year,” said Smith, who, if the rules remain unchanged, will qualify for the Masters through at least 2027 by virtue of his British Open win last July but currently has no guarantees beyond that. “Until these rankings get sorted, it’s definitely going to be in the back of my mind for sure.”He has, though, often resisted the urge to lash out in personal terms, even as his ambitions of reaching No. 1 have darkened for now.“I made my bed, and I’m happy to sleep in it,” Smith, who was reportedly promised at least $100 million in guaranteed money if he joined LIV, said recently on an Arizona patio. “But at the same time, I think there’s an argument for coming to a golf tournament and knowing who you have to beat.”If Smith, or one of his LIV colleagues, wins at Augusta in the coming days, his ranking will surely soar. The Masters, after all, is an eligible tournament. More
Jordan Spieth is looking for his first major victory since 2017, and the weather forecast for the Masters Tournament is becoming less encouraging.AUGUSTA, Ga. — One of the pleasures of the Masters Tournament can be finding Fred Couples, the 1992 winner, in an expansive mood.And so it was on a particularly brisk Monday, after he had played part of the course with Tom Kim, Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods. Few players have had as many close looks at Woods in recent years: The men routinely play practice rounds together, with Couples filling a role approximating that of court jester. And even if his analyses sometimes prove off the mark, they can be telling glimpses of Woods’s potential.“He’s strong enough to hit it a mile,” Couples said of Woods. “He’s not hitting it as far as Rory — I don’t think many people are — but he’s hitting it really strong and solid, and he looks good.”Woods has played only four rounds of tournament golf this year, logging an average driving distance of 306.3 yards, about 20 yards behind McIlroy. But the challenge for Woods, as ever these days after the car wreck that nearly cost him a leg in February 2021, is walking 72 holes over four days of competition. Asked Monday whether Woods was moving differently from the way he had around this time last year, Couples replied, “Probably not.”“The leg — I guess this is what it is,” he continued. “I don’t know how much better it’s ever going to get.”Woods and Couples talk as they walk along the 14th fairway.Doug Mills/The New York TimesBut Couples did not talk exclusively about Woods. In McIlroy, who is seeking a victory at Augusta to complete a career Grand Slam, he sees a player with all of the potential in the world to capture a green jacket.“Is it surprising he’s never won this?” he said. “Of course it is, the way he plays and the way he putts and how high he hits it and how far he hits it. But it’s not that easy.”And not long after he had drawn headlines for bashing LIV players — Phil Mickelson was a “nut bag” and Sergio García a “clown” — Couples said he had merely wanted them to avoid criticizing the PGA Tour.“They don’t bother me,” he said. “They really don’t. They’re golfers. I’m a golfer. I respect them all. On my show, I’ve told everyone Sergio is one of the top 10 players I’ve ever seen hit a ball, but if he’s going to make comments about the tour that I play, I’m going to make a comment back — and if it’s offensive, I apologize, but they’re on another tour. Go play and have a good time.”Jabs aside, he was not bothered by their invitations to the Masters: “I think they deserve to be here.”— Blinder‘It’s definitely not going to be on any nutritionist’s plan.’Scottie Scheffler, the defending Masters champion and the world No. 1.Doug Mills/The New York TimesNearly all of the living Masters winners (as well as Fred S. Ridley, Augusta National’s chairman) are expected to convene Tuesday evening for their annual dinner. Scottie Scheffler, the reigning champion, picked the menu and will pick up the tab.The appetizers include cheeseburger sliders and firecracker shrimp. A tortilla soup will be on offer, and guests can pick between a Texas rib-eye steak — Scheffler, after all, is essentially a product of Dallas — and blackened redfish. Side items include macaroni and cheese, jalapeño creamed corn and brussels sprouts, and the dessert will be chocolate-chip skillet cookies topped with milk-and-cookies ice cream.The menu’s development began with a conversation among Scheffler; his wife, Meredith; and Blake Smith, his agent. The trio kicked around Scheffler’s favorite foods and narrowed the list before consulting with an Augusta National chef to nail down the menu.“It’s definitely not going to be on any nutritionist’s plan,” Scheffler said last month. “But we’re going to have fun. We’re going to eat some good food.”The menu should appeal to plenty of former winners, a traditional bunch that has sometimes been alarmed by selections like haggis (Sandy Lyle) and kidney pie (Nick Faldo). Some were skeptical in 2001, when they arrived to a Vijay Singh-commissioned menu of Thai delicacies.“I’m sure Charlie Coody didn’t try anything,” Tommy Aaron, the 1973 winner, recalled of the 1971 victor. “I had never had Thai food, and it was fantastic.”But the dinners, Aaron said a few years ago, always feature one practice: “They pour that wine like it’s going out of style.”— BlinderEvery day is like Sunday.Jordan Spieth, a PGA Tour golfer who won the Masters in 2015.Doug Mills/The New York TimesFirst-time visitors at the Masters tournament are always obvious. For starters, they tend to walk slowly with their eyes wide. As famed as Augusta National Golf Club is, to a newcomer parading around the grounds, the landscape is a bevy of surprises that no television broadcast — however technologically advanced and exhaustingly thorough — can grasp.For example, every Masters first-timer is stunned that the vertical drop from the 10th tee to the 10th green is a stunning, and difficult to traverse, 85 feet. It’s one of many discoveries. And as Jordan Spieth, the 2015 Masters champion, said on Monday, even veteran players know that there may be another revelation awaiting them each time they arrive at the site of the tournament.Players fret and worry that their games may not be ready for the exacting test that awaits.Taking note of a packed practice range on Monday, Spieth waved a hand toward the scene and said: “Have you ever seen this many people practicing this hard on a Monday? Typically, you take Monday off.”Annual tweaks to the course, like the substantial lengthening of the 13th hole this year, only add to the tension. As Spieth added: “You know, you’re just anxious. More anxious than nervous.”Asked if the mental preparation for the tee shot on the pivotal first hole tended to change considerably from Thursday’s welcoming opening round to Sunday’s tense final, Spieth shook his head side to side. “I don’t feel that it changes,” he answered.He continued: “It’s one of the only places it doesn’t change for me, regardless of the position I’m in. It feels like it’s a Sunday — a first tee shot in contention each day.”— PenningtonCameron Smith arrived with trepidation.Cameron Smith, a LIV golfer and the 2022 British Open champion.Andrew Redington/Getty ImagesIt’s not just golf fans and reporters who have been wondering how the stalwarts of the PGA Tour and the renegade LIV golfers would get along when having to mingle at the Masters tournament for the first time this week. Cameron Smith, who bolted for the Saudi-backed LIV circuit a month after winning last year’s British Open, conceded on Monday that he had approached the Augusta National Golf Club practice area with trepidation.“I really wasn’t sure what to expect walking onto the range, but it was good to see some familiar faces and a lot of smiles,” Smith said with a wide grin. “It was just a really nice experience.”But Smith, who is hardly known for pointed remarks, also insisted that the 18 LIV golfers in the 88-player 2023 Masters field were intent on having a visible presence at the top of the leaderboard when at the tournament’s conclusion. And, he said, the LIV cohort is aware of the shade that has been thrown its way by its one-time colleagues on the PGA Tour.“It’s just important for LIV guys to be up there, because I think we need to be up there,” Smith said on Monday. Referring to the occasional derisive comments directed at the LIV circuit by PGA Tour players, officials or members of the golf media, he added: “I think there’s a lot of chatter about how these guys don’t play real golf; these guys don’t play real golf courses. For sure, I’ll be the first one to say, the fields aren’t as strong. But we’ve still got a lot of guys up there that can play some really serious golf.“I think we just need a good, strong finish.”Smith was also asked about whether the LIV golfers had discussed having a joint celebration on the 18th green if one of them were to win this year’s Masters, which was suggested recently by Greg Norman, the LIV Golf Commissioner.“There definitely hasn’t been a conversation with me — I definitely got left out of that one,” he said, laughing. “I guess we’ll see how the week unfolds. For sure, I’d love to see one of us guys get up to the top of the leaderboard and really give it a nice shot.”Lastly, Smith, whose world golf ranking has slipped to sixth from second at the end of the 2022, reiterated that he had no regrets about joining LIV Golf.“I’ve made my bed, and I’m very, very happy where I am,” he said.— PenningtonKeep an eye on the weather.There’s a good chance for rain at Augusta National on the weekend.Doug Mills/The New York TimesYes, it is early in the week. Yes, weather forecasts can change. But no, the outlook for this week is not great. The team assembling forecasts for Augusta National has pegged the chances of rain at 60 percent or higher on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.“Shower and thunderstorm chances increase Thursday afternoon as a weak frontal boundary approaches,” the tournament said in one of its official forecasts on Monday. “The front is expected to stall to the south Friday into Saturday with a northeast wind pushing much colder air into Georgia. Waves of upper-level energy moving along the front are forecast to produce periods of rain that could be heavy at times through Sunday.”All of that scientific speak could make this Masters a delight for Rory McIlroy, who has sometimes thrived in abysmal weather at major tournaments, and a nightmare for the organizers.The Masters last had a Monday finish in 1983, when Seve Ballesteros won his second green jacket. That year, the second round — the Friday round — did not end until 8:30 a.m. on Sunday.But Augusta National is accustomed to dealing with poor weather more recently. If a round is upended in the coming days because of inclement conditions, this will be the fifth consecutive year in which tournament organizers have had to grapple so explicitly with meteorological misfortune.— Blinder More
