On the Road to the Masters, Not Everyone Is On the Same Path

Suspended from the PGA Tour, many LIV players are denied the traditional tournament preparation leading up to year's first major.

In 1986, Seve Ballesteros was suspended from the PGA Tour for a year by Commissioner Deane Beman because he didn’t play the required minimum of 15 tournaments in the previous season. As a European member of the PGA Tour, Ballesteros could play in any tournaments around the world that conflicted with the PGA Tour events without permission so long as he played in at least 15 PGA Tour events a year. Ballesteros enjoyed competing on the PGA Tour, but he thought 15 tournaments was too many events when he also had playing commitments in Europe and Asia. A five-time major winner, the flamboyant Spaniard was one of the best players in the world and in ‘85 the winner of five worldwide events. At the ’85 Ryder Cup at the Belfry, he was the emotional leader of a European team that beat the U.S. for the first time since 1957.

Many believed that he was too popular to be left off the game’s biggest stage, the PGA Tour, where he seemingly had the overwhelming support of most Tour members who wanted to have the most exciting player of their era in tournaments. Yet despite the public criticism of the suspension, Beman didn’t relent and only allowed Ballesteros to play in one PGA Tour event during the season—the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, where he was the defending champion. Still, he could still play the majors, which weren't governed by the Tour.

At the ’86 Masters, fuming over his suspension, Ballesteros called Beman a “little man who wants to be big.” At the mecca of golf, the two-time Masters champion tried to put Beman in his place. “Let’s forget Deane Beman,” said Ballesteros, who died in 2011 from brain cancer. “The Masters is more important than Deane Beman.”

Many stars of the PGA Tour in 1986 wanted Seve Ballesteros to get more Tour starts. Commissioner Deane Beman saw to it that the Spaniard didn't / USA TODAY Network

Ballesteros’ contempt for Beman and his belief that a Masters invitation is more important than owning a PGA Tour card is a mindset likely shared by many LIV Tour players, who are entering their first full seasons without playing privileges on the PGA Tour. For these top LIV defectors and major champions— Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Bubba Watson, Charl Schwartzel and others—the majors still give them the biggest stage.

In the same way that Ballesteros understood this 37 years ago, these players know that the game still ultimately revolves around those four weeks of the year. Each of them will have their day with the media at the Masters, where they may take some shots at the leadership of PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan. They will deftly push back against criticism about the source of the millions for the LIV Tour purses and player contracts, and their CEO Greg Norman, who has become the game’s most recognizable villain.

Their buildups to Augusta will not go from the West Coast swing to the Florida Swing with Bay Hill and the Players, and other pit stops on winding roads that lead to Magnolia Lane in the second weekend in April. Instead, these players will prepare for the Masters with a smattering of LIV and international events.

So much has been made of the audacity of Norman and LIV Golf to launch a rival tour against the vaunted PGA Tour, where players go to become legends and one-named heroes like Jack, Arnie, Tiger, Hogan and Player. But the real victim in this schism is the game of golf. We should have Dustin Johnson, Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Smith, Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy battling each other in the weeks leading up to the Masters because we want to see great golf.

The Arnold Palmer Invitational will not be the same without DeChambeau clearing the water with a nearly 400-year-drive at the double-dogleg par-5 6th at Bay Hill. The Players won’t have Cameron Smith, its defending champion. Nothing about the beginning of the golf season will ever be the same as long as most of the best players in the world are not preparing together through competition for the first major of the year.

Cameron Smith will arrive at Augusta as a favorite, having won the last major of 2022. But his lead-up to the Masters won't include defending his Players Championship title :: Michael Madrid/USA TODAY Sports

In ’86, top players like Ben Crenshaw were outspoken at the beginning of the season about Beman lifting Ballesteros’ suspension because they wanted to compete against one of the top players in the world. They wanted to be up close to his otherworldly shot-making ability and touch around the green. They wanted to beat him. They wanted to know the game he was bringing to the Masters. Ultimately, they were fighting for the game as much as they were for the vindication of one player.

What are we fighting for now? It’s the right of every one of these LIV players to earn a great living. The PGA Tour also has the right to protect its product by any means necessary, including the suspension of players who don’t abide by its rules. Both sides though are losing something. The PGA Tour schedule is less interesting without fun personalities like Harold Varner III, the wedge mastery of Dustin Johnson, the surliness of Brooks Koepka and the candor of Mickelson. LIV Golf is in no way an approximation of championship golf with its 54-hole no-cut, shotgun starts, team format and loud music.

That ’86 Masters is best remembered for Nicklaus’s back-nine 30 to win his sixth green jacket, but Ballesteros had the lead in the final round before faltering with two bogeys over the last four holes to finish two shots back in fourth place. He’d come into that week having only played in three events on the year, but he wasn’t worried. “I’m ready to win,” he said. “I’ve been hitting balls and practicing.”

Let’s see which LIV players are ready to win at Augusta without competing against the best PGA Tour players regularly at the beginning of the year. Let’s see if these players will let the controversy around their new tour impact their performance on the course when they meet the best PGA Tour players. But first they will need to do something to fill the void in their schedule left by their absence from the PGA Tour to prepare for Augusta. We’ll be watching wherever they are to see how well their LIV events translate into major championship golf. They will also need some of the fight, ingenuity and experience of Ballesteros to will their way through both golf’s biggest controversy and Amen Corner.