Augusta could be a light for struggling stars

AUGUSTA, Ga. — If you’re expecting star power prevailing in this week’s Masters, which begins Thursday at Augusta National, don’t look at the list of winners so far on the PGA Tour.

With all due respect to each of their accomplishments and talent, the list is a who’s-who of … well ... who are these guys?

Among the tournament winners include Nick Dunlap, who was the first amateur to win a PGA Tour event since Phil Mickelson did it in 1991. Then there was Matthieu Pavon, the first Frenchman to win on the PGA Tour.

There, too, was rookie Jake Knapp winning in Mexico, and Austin Eckroat, another rookie, capturing his first victory, then Pete Malnati winning for the first time in nine years and German Stephan Jaeger winning for the first time.

The world’s top players, other than No. 1 ranked Scottie Scheffler and reigning U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark, have been absent from the top of leaderboards.

Rory McIlroy, ranked No. 2, hasn’t won a tournament leading into the Masters. Jon Rahm, the defending Masters champion, won three times before his win at Augusta last year but has not won once this year, even after he joined LIV Golf.

Xander Schauffele, ranked No. 5; Patrick Cantlay, ranked No. 7; Viktor Hovland, ranked No. 6; Brian Harman, the reigning British Open champion who’s ranked No. 8? None has a win this year.

Even Ludvig Aberg, who’s ranked No. 9 and is considered one of the best young talents out there, hasn’t won. This Masters, in fact, is his first career major — even though he excelled on the European Ryder Cup team in the fall.

The rub here when it comes to the top players versus the lesser knowns is that the cream usually rises to the top at the Masters. There are exceptions, but over the years the stars usually shine brightest at Augusta.

The best part of this week is the fact that all the world’s best players are together in the same tournament for the first time since the British Open in July.

With the division between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, with the PGA Tour banning LIV players who compete in its events, only the four major championships bring all of those players together on the same course in the same tournament.

“I believe everyone agrees there’s excitement in the air this week,” Masters chairman Fred Ridley said Wednesday. “The best players in the world are together once again.”

The question is how long that’ll even be the case in the majors since the world ranking system that’s in place doesn’t recognize LIV or award points to its members. And the world rankings are the essential pathway for players to qualify for the majors.

The Masters, for instance, had 18 LIV players in the field last year and has just 13 this week. Seven of those are past Masters champions and are invited into the tournament automatically. Unless something changes with the deeply flawed ranking system, the only LIV players allowed in the Masters field will be past champions.

Just nine LIV players are assured of being back to Augusta National next year, depending on how they fare in the majors this year. The top 50 in the world rankings at the end of the year and a week before the Masters get invitations to Augusta.

Bryson DeChambeau, one of the LIV players in the field this week but not a former Masters champion, suggested this week that the major championships like the Masters invite a number of the top players from the Saudi tour into its field based on how they’re performing.

Ridley didn’t sound keen on that.

“If we felt that there were a player or players, whether they played on the LIV Tour or any other tour, who were deserving of an invitation to the Masters, we would exercise that discretion with regard to special invitations,” Ridley said.

One special invite was given to a LIV player who wasn’t already qualified via ranking or pastchampion status — Joaquin Niemann.

Interestingly, when Ridley ran down the reasons why Niemann was invited, he cited a number of Niemann’s accomplishments — none of which were LIV related — despite the fact that the Chilean has won two LIV tournaments this year.

So, the continental divide remains. At least golf has this week.