Golf needs Rory McIlroy Masters favour as civil war rages vs LIV rebel

The Masters: Who is in the top 10 heading to Augusta?

As battlegrounds go, Augusta National must be the prettiest in the sporting world but make no mistake there will be bloodstains amongst the azaleas this weekend. Metaphorical ones hopefully – this is still golf after all – but the painful divide that the game’s civil war has opened up will be laid bare at the Masters.

It is LIV against the loyalists, a jarring clash of worlds fought out on a luxuriant carpet of green against a backdrop of beautiful blossoms and polite applause. Golf is traditionally an individual sport and the Majors are about individual glory but the team concept that looks so forced in LIV Golf has, ironically, found a focus at Augusta.

The 18 rebels are playing for themselves, sure, but also their organisation. The next few days are a high-profile chance to prove LIV is not some knockabout pension pot operation but the real deal. If they go well, the Saudi-backed circus will receive a valuable stamp of authenticity decked in Masters green livery.

If it goes badly the sniping at LIV’s relevance as a summer camp in shorts will only intensify. The stakes are high as the splitters temporarily return to the mainstream fold.

“I’d love to see one of us guys get to the top of the leaderboard and really give it a nice shot,” said Open champion Cam Smith. “I think there’s a lot of chatter about: ‘these guys don’t play real golf, these guys don’t play real golf courses.’

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“I’ll be the first one to say that the fields aren’t as strong but we’ve still got a lot of guys that can play some really serious golf and we compete against each other hard.” The question of whether a sporadic diet of three-round tournaments can prepare them adequately for a Major Championship is one Dustin Johnson was happy to answer.

“I’m going to be ready no matter how many events I have played,” said Johnson. There have been plenty of cover stories about why players defected from the traditional Tours usually under the fanciful banner of growing the game.

Harold Varner makes no bones about why he went to LIV. For the money, stupid. His honesty has brought a backlash which has reached him via his social media channels. While it stings, it also drives him to prove himself this week.

“They used to write nice stuff but now it’s just chaos,” said Varner. “Everyone thinks we suck now so I want to play great. It’s not like Space Jam where they took our talents away.”

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If you haven’t seen the film, it features evil aliens stealing the powers of NBA basketball players. LIV as the bad guys? It fits the narrative of the shameless sportswashers out to ruin golf as we know it.

There is bad news coming for LIV with confirmation on its way that their players have lost their case against the DP World Tour over sanctions. With no access to Europe or the PGA Tour, the rebels’ world rankings will continue to dwindle away.

They are on the ropes. But they are promising to come out fighting in the season’s first Major. Augusta National would much prefer it if the uniquely odd ritual on Sunday night in Butler Cabin ceremony sees Rory McIlroy or one of the other loyalists fitted with a Green Jacket.

A LIV winner would represent a resounding raspberry towards the naysayers and show golf’s great disruptors aren’t going anywhere in a hurry.

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