Players taking part in the Masters discuss LIV Tour vs. PGA Tour

Well, speaking of the Masters, we're one day away from this year's

tour

nament, but an underlying theme this year is the turmoil that professional golf has been going through for almost a year. The Saudi-funded live golf

tour

is now the PGA's rival. Tour and signed some great golfers out of the PGA, that's right, for more on that and how that rivalry plays out this week at Augusta National, we bring in our sports director, Beth, who, Beth, yeah, the golfers that signed with Liv have been banned. play in PGA Tour events, but the PGA Tour does not host the Masters or any of golf's other major tournaments, so Augusta National was able to rule independently and said that at least for now lift

players

are eligible, extending an invitation to 18 golfers this year.

Some of those names signed to Live include three-time Masters winner Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson, who is from the Midlands and also won the Masters in 2020. Johnson was asked this week if he feels different this year with the new Dynamic for me, nothing. nothing different just no, still playing golf for 11 years. So I'm here at the Masters and you know, I'm enjoying this week and you know this week is about Augusta, so it has nothing to do with where you play, but you know, guys. The ones here play all over the world, so they don't all play in one place, so the live tour has been criticized from many different angles, especially the support of Saudi Arabia and their horrible human rights record, until the feeling of imposed style. of their three-round no-cut tournaments, some

players

on the live tour see this opportunity to be in Augusta as a chance to legitimize their league.

I think it's important for the live guys to be up there because I think we need to I think we need to be up there I think there's a lot of talk about these guys don't play real golf. These guys don't play on real golf courses. I'm sure I'll be the first to say the fields. They're not that strong, I'm the first to say that, but we still have a lot of guys there that can play really serious golf and we compete hard against each other week in and week out and we're trying to do that.

The same thing we did six months ago, one of the most outspoken against live has been PGA Tour superstar Rory McIlroy, but even he said this week is more than any dispute or feeling he has. I think this tournament is bigger than all of them. which you know, it's a look, it's a narrative and it's a story, but you know, the Masters and the four major championships said above all that noise and that's how it should be this week. McIlroy is currently the number two player in the world and a favorite. Winning the tournament this week would be his first green jacket and complete the elusive Grand Slam.

Now, a guy who wasn't invited to Augusta National this week, former world number one golfer and now live tour CEO Greg Norman Norman, has been publicly combative with the tour since the new league began, president of the Augusta Nationals echoed the same sentiment as McElroy when asked why Norman did not receive an invitation, we did not extend an invitation to Mr. Norman, the main problem in the driver there. It's just that I want to focus this week in the Masters competition on the great players who are

part

icipating, the best players in the world, whose five-time Masters winner and fan favorite, Tiger Woods, has said he doesn't believe the two tours can coexist as long as Norman is in charge of the live and, guys, I talked to people about this the last few days at the Masters and the fans really seem to echo the same sentiment as the players that this is the Masters.

These major events are kind of in a category of their own and those guys should be here and they're excited to see them and we can also see the effects of the type of golf they've been playing.