AUGUSTA, Ga. — If you’re hoping for star power to prevail at this week’s Masters, which begins Thursday at Augusta National, you need look no further than the list of all-time winners on the PGA Tour.
In honor of each of their accomplishments and talents, this list is…um…who are these people?
Tournament winners include Nick Dunlap, who became the first amateur to win a PGA Tour event since Phil Mickelson in 1991.
Then there was Mathieu Pabon, the first Frenchman to win on the PGA Tour.
Also, rookie Jake Knapp won in Mexico, fellow rookie Austin Eckrot won for the first time, followed by Pete Malnati’s first win in nine years and German Stefan Jaeger’s first win.
Other than No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and current U.S. Open champion Windham Clark, the world’s top players have disappeared from the top of the leaderboard.
Rory McIlroy, ranked No. 2, has not won a tournament leading up to the Masters.
Defending Masters champion Jon Rahm won three times before winning at Augusta last year, but he has yet to win once this year since joining LIV Golf.
Xander Schauffele, 5th place. Patrick Cantlay, 7th place. Viktor Hovland, 6th place. What about Brian Harman, the current British Open champion and No. 8 in the rankings?
No one has won this year.
Even Ludwig Aberg, who is ranked ninth and is considered one of the best young players, has not won.
Despite excelling with Europe’s Ryder Cup team in the fall, the Masters will actually be his first major tournament of his career.
The problem with the competition between top players and unknown players is that the best players usually come out on top at the Masters.
There are exceptions, but over the years the star has typically shined brightest in Augusta.
The best part about this week is the fact that all of the world’s top players will be in the same tournament for the first time since the British Open in July.
With the PGA Tour and LIV Golf split, and the PGA Tour banning LIV players from competing in its events, the four major championships are the only ones that bring all of these players together on the same course in the same tournament.
“I think we can all agree that there is excitement in the air this week,” Masters chairman Fred Ridley said Wednesday. “The best players in the world will come together again.”
The current world ranking system in place does not recognize LIV and does not award points to members, so the question is how long this will last in the majors.
World rankings are also an important pathway for players to qualify for major leagues.
For example, the Masters had 18 LIV players on the field last year, but this week there are only 13.
Seven of them are past Masters champions and will be automatically invited to the tournament.
Unless something changes with the deeply flawed ranking system, the only LIV players who will be able to enter the Masters field will be past champions.
Depending on their performance at this year’s majors, only nine LIV players are certain to return to Augusta National next year.
At the end of the year and one week before the Masters, the top 50 players in the world rankings receive an invitation to Augusta.
Ridley said Wednesday that the Official World Golf Ranking is a “legitimate determining factor” in determining golf’s highest rankings, but this is a questionable assessment at best.
Bryson DeChambeau, one of the LIV players who took to the field this week, but is not a former Masters champion, said this week that major championships like the Masters invite a number of top Saudi Tour players to take to the field based on their status During the performance that suggested that.
Ridley didn’t seem keen on that.
“If we feel there are players who deserve an invitation to the Masters, whether they play on the LIV Tour or another tour, we will exercise that discretion regarding special invitations,” Ridley said. .
One of the special invitations was given to Joaquin Niemann, a LIV player who does not yet qualify as a ranking or past champion.
Interestingly, when Ridley detailed why Niemann was invited, he listed a number of Niemann’s accomplishments (none of which are LIV-related), even though the Chilean has won two LIV tournaments this year. It wasn’t).
Therefore, the continental divide still remains. At least I can play golf this week.
