The true feelings of those in charge at Augusta remain hard to read but one thing is clear – locking out players is not good for business
The air of mystique surrounding Augusta National ensures a captive audience even when there is precious little to say. It would have been major news had the host club of the Masters announced that LIV rebels would be banned from the 87th staging of the major. Instead, in somewhat grudging and opaque terms, the tournament chairman, Fred Ridley, confirmed LIV players already eligible for April in Georgia – 16 of them, to be precise – will not encounter roadblocks at the end of Magnolia Lane.
The Masters is looking after itself. This is the same policy adopted by the R&A in respect to the Open. It will be an identical approach from the PGA of America and the United States Golf Association when it comes to the US PGA Championship and the US Open respectively. Locking out players, some of them carrying a high profile and some of them former champions, is not good for business. Cameron Smith, a LIV convert, is the holder of the Claret Jug. Television companies and sponsors would want to know why their “product” was being diminished for reasons separate to the tournament. Ridley, Martin Slumbers (his equivalent at the R&A) and the rest do not much fancy those conversations. So, instead, they tiptoe through the tulips. If this is partly understandable, it is also more than a little deflating.
