Here's Where Phil Mickelson and All the LIV Golfers Finished at the Masters

The Saudi-backed league cannot claim the first major champion of 2023 but its oldest player had a memorable Sunday.
Here's Where Phil Mickelson and All the LIV Golfers Finished at the Masters
Here's Where Phil Mickelson and All the LIV Golfers Finished at the Masters /

For much of the week at Augusta National, it appeared that a LIV Golf player would win the year's first major.

In the end it was Jon Rahm claiming the green jacket as Brooks Koepka failed to hold his 54-hole lead, but two other LIV players stormed up the Masters Sunday leaderboard to make things interesting.

Three-time Masters champion Phil Mickelson, age 52, fired a 65 to get into second along with Brooks Koepka at 8 under, four shots behind Rahm. Patrick Reed also finished in the top 5, shooting 68 for a T4 finish.

After that, the next highest LIV player was Joaquin Niemann at T18. A dozen LIV players made the cut with Koepka, Mickelson, Reed and Niemann finishing under par.

A total of 18 players teed it up at this year's Masters but fewer are likely to be in the field next year. Abraham Ancer, Talor Gooch, Jason Kokrak, Kevin Na, Niemann, Louis Oosthuizen, Mito Pereira, Thomas Pieters, Harold Varner III qualified for this Masters by being in the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking (Niemann and Gooch also by qualifying for the 2022 Tour Championship, Pereira via the 2022 PGA Championship), but the OWGR has yet to award points for LIV events so those players have been plummeting in the rankings. They can only pick up points by playing well in majors.

Sergio Garcia, Dustin Johnson, Mickelson, Reed, Charl Schwartzel and Bubba Watson are exempt as past Masters champions. Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith will be exempt from their major wins in recent years. 

LIV Golf Results for Players Making the Cut

T2. Brooks Koepka -8
T2. Phil Mickelson  -8
T4. Patrick Reed  -7
T16. Joaquin Niemann  -2
T29. Harold Varner III  +1
T34. Talor Gooch  +4
T34. Cameron Smith  +4
T39. Abraham Ancer  +5
T43. Mito Pereira +6
T48. Dustin Johnson  +8
T48.Thomas Pieters  +8
50. Charl Schwartzel  +9


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John Schwarb
JOHN SCHWARB

John Schwarb is a senior editor for Sports Illustrated covering golf. Prior to joining SI in March 2022, he worked for ESPN.com, PGATour.com, Tampa Bay Times and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He is the author of The Little 500: The Story of the World's Greatest College Weekend. A member of the Golf Writers Association of America, Schwarb has a bachelor's in journalism from Indiana University.