Simply use the season-long performance list for each league or tour and provide exemptions to the top players.

“We have to come up with a qualifying mechanism that is inclusive, and if the World Golf Ranking isn’t going to be inclusive, then they have to find another way,” Mickelson said. “They’re going to have to find a way to get the best LIV players in their field if they want to have the best field in golf and be really what a major championship is about.”

“Forget World Ranking points,” Watson added. “Just who is the best in your tour and our league and go from there. It’s simple math. Forget World Ranking points about who plays at what tournament, this tournament is better than that tournament — no. Your tour, your league, call it a day and at those places play against each other four times a year.”

Bubba Watson. Ezra Shaw

The two LIV Golf captains — Mickelson with HyFlyers, Watson with RangeGoats — made their comments on Wednesday while preparing for this week’s LIV Golf Singapore presented by Resorts World Sentosa Singapore, the fifth tournament of the 2023 LIV Golf League.

The strength of major fields has been a discussion point due to the reliance on the Official World Golf Ranking for various exemptions. The Masters, for instance, offers invites to players in the top 50 of the OWGR in the previous calendar year, as well as the top 50 the week prior to the Masters. The Open Championship offers spots to top 50 OWGR players; the US Open to top 60.

LIV Golf tournaments currently do not receive OWGR points, despite fields that include 13 major winners, including six-time winner Mickelson and two-time Masters champion Watson. Ripper Captain Cameron Smith joined LIV Golf after winning last year’s 150th Open at St Andrews.

At the Masters earlier this month, 18 LIV Golf players were in the field, with Mickelson and Brooks Koepka tying for second and Patrick Reed tying for fourth. The total number of players could be reduced by half for 2024 based on the current qualification criteria.

For the remaining three majors, 10 LIV golfers have confirmed spots for next month’s PGA Championship, seven for the US Open in June, and 11 for the Open Championship in July.

Mickelson, thanks to his record-setting win at the 2021 PGA Championship at age 50, is one of five LIV golfers who are qualified to play in all four majors this season. The others are Smith, Bryson DeChambeau (as the 2020 US Open winner), Dustin Johnson (as the 2020 Masters winner) and Brooks Koepka (for recent major wins, including the 2019 PGA Championship).

Players exempt for majors this year based on previous OWGR standing and other criteria may fall outside the qualification parameters in upcoming years if the system is not adjusted.

“I think that they need to come to a resolution, or it will become obsolete,” said DeChambeau about the current ranking system. “It’s pretty much obsolete as of right now. But again, if the majors and everything continue to have that as their ranking system, then they are biting it quite heavily.”

“If you’re saying these tournaments are the best in the world, you’ve got to have the best there,” Watson said. “To keep them out or to make them lose World Ranking points is not the right way to go. I’ve said it, and I’m going to say it again – I believe we’ve just got to focus on the tours and our league, and the top players.”

LIV Golf has a season-long individual ranking system that rewards the top 24 players in each regular-season tournament with a weighted number of points based on their result. Through the first four events this season, 4 Aces member Peter Uihlein leads the points race as the only player with top-10 finishes in each tournament. Crushers GC’s Charles Howell III, the winner of the season opener in Mayakoba, is second; last week’s winner in Adelaide, Talor Gooch, ranks third.

Other tours have similar points standings, including the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit, the PGA Tour’s FedExCup, and the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai.

Mickelson is confident a solution will eventually be reached that will provide the majors with the best fields in golf.

“If you’re one of the majors, if you’re the Masters, you’re not looking at, ‘We should keep these guys out,’” Mickelson said. “You’re saying to yourself: ‘We want to have the best field, we want to have the best players, and these guys added a lot to the tournament this year at the Masters. How do we get them included?’

“If the World Golf Rankings doesn’t find a way to be inclusive, then the majors will just find another way to include LIV because it’s no longer a credible way. So it will all iron itself out for the simple reason that it’s in the best interest of everybody, especially the tournaments, the majors, to have the best players.”

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But to understand the origins of this unique moniker, you must break it in half.

There are two very distinct stories, and the two-time Masters champ was happy to share the thought process behind the RangeGoats concept, which he developed with input from teammate Harold Varner III, among others.

First, let’s start with RANGE.

The first golf shot Watson ever struck was on a range at Tanglewood Golf Course in Milton, Florida. He was six years old. The head pro provided free clinics to kids on the weekend, and that was pretty much all the Watson family, living in nearby Bagdad, could afford in terms of instruction at the time.

The pro, left-handed just like Bubba, also gave Watson his first club — likely not anticipating that it would set the youngster on a path that should end up in the World Golf Hall of Fame.

The range hits home with Watson and his modest upbringing.

“It just goes back to the roots of who I am, where I come from,” Watson said. “You know, I didn’t live a glamorous lifestyle growing up and I’m taking a wild guess that Harold didn’t either. So that’s where the whole process started in my mind.”

In 1991, when Watson was a teenager, the Summit Driving Range opened up near his home, on the other side of the Escambia Bay in Pensacola. One of the first employees was a Milton youngster named Randall Wells, who would eventually become Watson’s business partner.

In August of 2018, Watson purchased the Summit range, upgraded the facilities and renamed it the Pensacola Golf Centre, offering instructions and helping to grow the game. It’s the only standalone range in the area.

“It’s a little hole in the wall range, right next to the airport,” Watson said. “It was going under, kind of going away. So we bought it and took it over and renamed it Pensacola Golf Centre because I want my city to be represented.

“It’s for the city. It’s a place to come and hit balls and learn the game of golf. Doesn’t matter what you wear. It’s just about having fun. That’s the kind of roots you think about in Bagdad and a guy named Bubba. We didn’t grow up in the country club lifestyle. The ‘range’ just made sense.”

Watson said having “range” as part of his team’s name also provides fodder for commentary, which Watson gained an appreciation for as an on-course broadcaster at LIV Golf events last year while he healed from knee surgery. He returned to action at last week’s PIF Saudi International and will make his LIV Golf playing debut at the 2023 season opener in Mayakoba later this month.

“If we keep losing like the Niblicks did last year, then we can just say we’re really good on the range, but we’re not very good on the golf course,” Watson laughed.

Now for the GOATS part.

In current sports vernacular, fans know what it means to refer to transcendent players as the GOAT — Greatest Of All Time. For instance, Tom Brady just retired as the NFL’s GOAT, and Michael Jordan is generally considered as basketball’s GOAT (even as LeBron James stands on the verge of becoming the NBA’s all-time leading scorer), while Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo tussle with Pele and Diego Maradona for the crown in football and Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic all lay claim to the title in tennis.

But Watson and his partners considered another way to utilise the acronym that would be more appropriate for one of LIV Golf’s key initiatives: Golfers On A Team. And since there are four playing members and not just a singular person, then it had to be Goats. Plural. Not Goat.

Meanwhile, Watson likes the double meaning behind the term ‘goat’. Not only could it mean somebody who plays better than anybody else, it could also be somebody who makes a mistake and costs his team a chance at victory.

“Like, either you’re not very good at golf,” he said with a chuckle, “or you’re really good.”

Why RangeGoats? pic.twitter.com/vqNAG2JzXj

— rangegoatsgc (@RangeGoatsGC) February 7, 2023

Coming up with the name was only half of the creative process. Watson wanted the team’s logo to reflect both the sport and the animal.

So look closely at the logo (see bottom of story). The ears of the goat resemble the clubheads of irons. The goat’s mouth looks like a tee, and his nose looks like a golf ball.

Then in the wordmark, with the word “RANGE” on the top line and “GOATS” right below on the second line, the negative space between the A and N to the O below resembles a flagstick.

“There’s a real reason why we did things,” Watson said. “We’re going to grow this team and grow this outside of golf. Obviously, winning grows a team. But we worked hard on this.”

Wells’ business acumen, said Watson, has been a huge help. The two are part of the ownership group of the Pensacola Blue Wahoos, a minor league baseball team and the Double-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins. Wells, by the way, was the valedictorian of Watson’s high school graduation class at Milton.

How well the RangeGoats perform inside the ropes is up to Watson and his three teammates. How well the RangeGoats perform on the business side will depend in part on the acceptance of the name and the logo by golf fans and consumers.

The story behind the name, and Bubba’s passion, uniqueness and folksy charm, as well as the popularity of his teammates — especially Varner, one of LIV Golf’s most endearing players — can only be a positive.

Already, there’s one player from another team who can’t wait to get his hands on some RangeGoats merch.

“I can tell you right now I will be buying a hat from them,” said Peter Uihlein, who finished No. 3 in the Individual Champion race last year while playing for three different teams — including a brief stint on the Niblicks. “Having a goat with a golf club is brilliant. Hilarious and brilliant.”

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Returning warrior Bubba Watson walked off the course after his first competitive round in almost a year with a broad grin on his face — having just missed the cut.

The 44-year-old American completed his second round at the Saudi International in a blistering 66, belying the fact that this was his first tournament since undergoing a knee operation eight months ago.

While he did not make it to the weekend at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club — a first-round 76 meant he finished two strokes outside the cut line — the two-time Masters champion had plenty to be happy about with a return to Augusta looming in April.

“It was good out there today, but it was scary, though,” Watson said at Royal Greens on Friday. “You think about the last time I played, it was the PGA Championship [in May]. You think about the leg, you think about is it going to feel that way again? What if you have one of those weird lies in the desert, on the grass or on a hill, will it happen again?

“For me — I can’t speak for anyone else who has an injury, but for me personally, it was tough. It was nerve-racking.

“Then the wind was really, really tough [on Thursday], so it was just double hard. So I knew that my score didn’t equate to how I hit it or how I can hit it. It was just knocking off the rust, trusting my body, and then difficult conditions. So it was, I guess, three strikes that went against me.

“Then today, less wind. Now being able to trust a little bit more in my golf swing and my leg, it was a better score. It was four-under today. It was night and day.

“Every round I play is just going to give me more and more confidence.

Ahead of the Masters, Watson will pick up a club and compete for the first time in LIV Golf at Mayakoba in Mexico, having been a non-playing captain in the series ‘ 2022 season.

Go home, and you just grind. The more rounds I can get under my belt, the more practice I can get, the more trust I can gain.

“I can’t wait,” said Watson, who doubled as an on-course commentator for LIV last year. “The reason why we all signed up is easy. The biggest reason is team golf. That’s a no-brainer. We enjoy it. We want to hang out with our buddies. Like the last two days I played with Harold [Varner III], being able to spend time with him, it’s fun. So me and him getting to battle together with our other teammates, can’t wait.

“HV3  told me how fun LIV was last year. I had to commentate. Even though I was with the team, I wasn’t. I couldn’t battle with them. I can’t wait to be able to battle, good or bad, right? You play a good round or play a bad round, it’s going to be fun trying to win.”

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The two-time Masters champ is making his return to competitive golf at this week’s Saudi International following a right knee injury that kept him off the course for eight months. It will also mark his first event since leaving the PGA Tour for LIV Golf.

Augusta National recently announced that decision won’t keep Watson and others out of the Masters, but he is currently banned from all PGA Tour events. That includes one tournament in particular that he wants to participate in so much that he’s willing to “beg” Jay Monahan for a spot. That tournament? The PNC Championship.

Of course, the silly-season event is also one of the most special to major champs like Watson because it allows them to team up with a family member. And although Watson’s 10-year-old son, Caleb, isn’t an avid golfer yet, he’d like to at least know the opportunity is there should he ever get into the sport.

“My son, like I said, he doesn’t play golf, but now his whole goal was — I’ll put this out there, his whole goal was to play in the PNC, which is the parent-junior, and now I’m not allowed to play in it,” Watson told reporters in Saudi Arabia. “As soon as I see Jay Monahan — if Jay Monahan is watching this, I’ll see you at Augusta and I’ll try to beg you to let us play the PNC again.”

The PNC Championship has been around since 1995, but has gained popularity in recent years with Tiger Woods playing with his son, Charlie. Watson has previously played in the event a couple times.

“I never took a dollar for the PNC,” Watson continued. “I’ve played in the PNC twice. My dad is passed away, so I played with my father-in-law, I gave it all to a children’s hospital. It wasn’t about money for me. This is about helping. This is about maybe one day being able to play with my son.”

Watson and his wife, Angie, adopted a one-month-old Caleb just a couple weeks before Bubba won the 2012 Masters, his first of two green jackets. At the very least, Caleb will be at this year’s Masters caddying for his dad in the Par 3 Contest.

“It’s a cool tournament, and my son was kind of disappointed that he knows we’re not going to play in that,” Watson said. “But he still gets to caddie for me at Augusta, so he’s happy about that.”

Considering the current state of affairs between the PGA Tour and LIV, Watson might want to also have Caleb by his side when he has that talk with Monahan.

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The American two-time Masters champion had to go under the knife last year to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee, and has been on the long road to recovery since.

As he prepares to tee it up at the Saudi International this week at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club, Watson is looking to make up for lost time, but is treading carefully — literally, with his playing LIV Golf debut looming.

“I shot 63 eight months ago at PGA Championship, so now I am trusting everything that I couldn’t do over the last eight months, trusting my skills, trusting my practice,” he said. “That’s a mental issue, not a physical issue.

“But it’s an exciting time in my life. Now I have this other adventure of a league [LIV], playing with three guys. It’s going to be fun.

“For me it’s a teaching moment where I can learn but also help three other guys, help a league develop and grow, help change the landscape of juniors playing the game of golf at a quicker level.

“It’s going to be fun. It’s exciting.

“I’m looking forward to travelling the world and growing the game. I’ve always been a part of growing the game. In my local community, I try and do as much as I can to grow the game of golf. If everybody on this tournament helped their local talent play the game of golf, young kids, our game would have some good growth and continue to grow over the years.”

Watson is also delighted to be back in Saudi, having been here in a non-playing role at the LIV Golf event n September.

“It’s unbelievable here,” he said. “The water just off of No. 16, I just want to go swim in it. It’s the blue — I can’t even explain the blue colour to it. It’s just amazing. I’ve talked about my family coming over here, my kids coming over here because I want them to experience the rest of the world.

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“I just beat my caddie and my wife,” he said with a grin. “So I got that going for me.”

Consider it an unofficial tune-up for his re-entry into tournament action, as the two-time Masters champ will make his long-awaited return at next week’s Asian Tour season opener, the PIF Saudi International powered by Softbank Investment Advisers.

He’ll follow that in late February at LIV Golf Mayakoba in Mexico, his first competitive start for his new league since joining LIV Golf in the middle of last year’s inaugural season.

Watson, you may recall, spent the final five events of 2022 as the non-playing captain for Team Niblicks, as well as an on-course reporter for the live-streaming broadcast. But his primary goal during that time was to focus on his rehab after surgery following his last playing appearance at the PGA Championship in May.

It was during the middle of the third round at Southern Hills that Watson knew he had a serious health issue. He had shot a 7-under 63 the day before – the lowest score of his 184 career rounds played in majors – to climb into contention. As he headed toward the 10th tee, he was just one shot off the lead. There was just one problem.

“I can’t walk,” he told his caddie, Gabe Sauer.

“What do you mean?” replied Sauer.

“I don’t know, man. I just can’t walk,” Watson replied.

Sauder pointed to the nearby clubhouse, a short distance away if Watson wanted to withdraw. “You don’t need to injure yourself,” he cautioned.

Replied Watson: “I’m already injured.”

So close to the lead, he was determined to keep going, perhaps pull off a couple of miracle shots to stay in the mix. Alas, he went 4-over on the back nine that day to finish with a 73, followed by a 75 in the final round to drop into a tie for 30th. Having entered the weekend with hopes of a third major victory, he left Southern Hills in pain and saddled with uncertainty.

“My leg, I just couldn’t turn on it,” the left-handed Watson recalled. “I couldn’t twist on it.”

Initially, he thought he’d miss just 4-6 weeks, but further examinations revealed more serious issues, with the meniscus detached on the bone on one side and ripped on the other. In early June, he underwent surgery, and then watched during the next six weeks as the muscles in his right leg began to atrophy due to inactivity.

“I didn’t know I had muscle, first of all,” Watson said, smirking. “But I just lost so much muscle, and it wasn’t so much the quad or the calf, it was everything. The hip, the hip mobility, all of that stuff. I had to learn to walk again.”

Just as he was starting the rehab process, it was announced in late July that Watson was joining LIV Golf. He knew playing the rest of the season was a no-go, but he took comfort in realizing the extended off-season would allow him ample time to return for the 2023 launch of the 14-event LIV Golf League.

In between his responsibilities as a team captain and his broadcasting role, he began to slowly work on his game at LIV events. On the range at The International in Boston, he began hitting wedges. At the next tournament at Rich Harvest Farms outside Chicago, he hit 9-irons. In Bangkok, it was 7-irons. Finally, at the Miami Team Championship in late October, he received the go-ahead to hit drivers, although he was limited to a half-dozen swings.

A month later, doctors gave him the good news: He was 100 per cent ready for full, normal practice sessions with no limitations on swing counts. However, that didn’t mean his game immediately returned to full strength. The physical side was one thing; the mental side might be the bigger challenge.

“I’m still trying to build that leg muscle up,” Watson said. “I wouldn’t say I’m 100 per cent on the leg muscle being equal (to his left leg). But I’m really close. I’ll say we’re 10, 15 per cent off one leg to the other. I’m walking fine, no pain. It’s now trusting that I can really finish on that (right) leg.

“There’s going to be a few swings here and there where you just kind of revert back to old thoughts. So it’s like anything. It’s almost like teaching yourself to swing again or hit again … Now it’s all on me.”

Even the aspects of the game that don’t require big swings, like chipping and putting, have been slow to return, with his work on those areas compromised by rough winter weather in his home of Pensacola, Florida.

“It’s been real damp, the grass hasn’t grown well,” Watson said. “I know I need to get into quality golf courses. And then obviously you can’t recreate the energy, the excitement, the pressure (of tournament golf). It’s easy here now. Hopefully when game time comes, there’s not too much rust. Hopefully I can get into the flow quick.”

If it’s anything like his broadcast work during last year’s LIV events, it shouldn’t take too long for Watson. From his initial on-air appearance, he received favourable reviews for his insight and enthusiasm; meanwhile, he gained an appreciation for what it takes to pull off non-stop coverage in a 5-hour window.

His last call of the season, a birdie putt by Patrick Reed that helped 4 Aces secure the Team Championship title, reminded Watson of what he was missing, and why he’d rather have a driver in his hand than a microphone.

“Knowing Patrick over these years and being able to see his excitement for that, it made me want to do it. Made me want to go home and grind so I can have that chance to pull of something like that for my team,” Watson said. “This is why we joined LIV, for the team aspect. I’m anxious to get back with the team and try to pull off amazing shots.”

It was a year ago that Watson was victimized by an amazing shot – Harold Varner III’s 92-foot eagle putt on the 72nd hole to break a tie at the PIF Saudi International, leaving Watson in solo second. Now the good friends will enter 2023 playing for the same team, sharing the same goals of reaching the podium and celebrating.

And while Watson will miss working with the LIV Golf broadcast team, he won’t exactly miss being in front of a camera.

“I’d rather miss a 3-footer,” he said, “than have to come up with words to talk about golf.”

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As the reigning Masters champion, Scheffler is the host of this year’s Champions Dinner, which is held annually at Augusta National Golf Club on Tuesday night of tournament week. The Texan has given some thought to his menu choices for that evening. He also has considered the potentially awkward dynamics that might permeate the affair with LIV Golf members who own a Green Jacket in attendance.

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He’s not alone.

“One thing I keep going back to, and it’s probably only funny to me,” Jon Rahm said, “but I think the Masters Champions Dinner is going to be a little tense compared to how it’s been in the past. So I keep thinking about it because I wish I could be there and just be able to see how things work out.”

Scheffler found a way to make light of it when he chatted with Watson. “I told him that I was just going to have a separate table for him in the corner by himself,” Scheffler said, laughing at the memory. “Only kidding, obviously.”

Such is the state of golf in this new era of LIV Golf. The Masters will be the first event of 2023 in which LIV golfers will compete in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event after Augusta National revealed last month that past champions and other players exempt via various categories — such as world ranking status — will be invited to the year’s first major.

Of course, prominent players from both sides of the feud will be breaking bread (and, hopefully, nothing more) together at the Champions Dinner on April 4. Rahm is right. It could be a little tense.

Jokes aside, Scheffler sincerely hopes that is not the case.

“In the world of golf, I think it’s definitely a little sad what’s happening,” Scheffler said on Wednesday at the Plantation Course at Kapalua Resort, where he is competing in the Sentry Tournament of Champions. “It’s kind of weird this week. I get to my locker, and my locker’s next to Cam Smith’s locker, because he’s a past champ here, and he’s not here [banned from defending his title by moving to LIV Golf]. So it’s a little strange, but golf will move on. I think this stuff just takes time. Things will heal and we’ll see what happens.”

Smith not only is a past champion here, but he would have been the defending champion this week had he not left the PGA Tour for LIV after winning the Open Championship in July.

Scheffler is counting on the prestige and traditions of the Masters to perhaps mute some of the underlying animosity that might exist between the two factions. Can long-time rivals Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, hard-core defenders of their respective tours, put aside their differences and enjoy a night of camaraderie for a few hours in the company of Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Gary Player and Ray Floyd, among others? How much will Fred Couples, another staunch PGA Tour supporter, have to say to Sergio Garcia, a noted tour detractor?

“I think there’s so much history with the game and the PGA Tour and Augusta [and] I think for a few weeks a year we can put all that aside, especially with Augusta National being such a special place and with the history of the game and whatnot,” he said. “I think we can put all our stuff aside and just get together for a fun meal, all in a room together and just kind of celebrate the game of golf and Augusta National and just hang out.”

Nice thought. Adam Scott, winner of the 2013 Masters, holds a similar opinion. The Champions Dinner is no place for any agenda beyond the attendees celebrating their common bond.

“I’m not one, personally, to care about who’s got it in for who else or what issues there are in the game right now,” Scott said. “I’m genuinely just looking forward to that dinner, I don’t care who’s there. It’s one of the greatest nights of my year, every year. Obviously, this has all been disruptive. But all those guys who’ve won the Masters deserve to be there, and I will celebrate everyone who is in that room as someone who is part of the same club as a Masters champion.”

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Watson, who moved to LIV Golf this summer, was responding to the backlash the circuit has received for handing out guaranteed pay days to its new members.

“It makes me laugh because on the PGA Tour, I got paid behind closed doors to show up at tournaments, many tournaments,” Watson told ESPN. “And if Bubba Watson’s not the best, that means the best were getting paid better than me and more than me. And so it’s guaranteed money. I miss the cut, I still make money. I make the cut, I make extra money.”

Watson later added: “I’d laugh at [criticism] because we all had some guaranteed money to show up at places. Win, lose, quit, whatever it is, you still got the money. We’ve all been doing that. We’ve all been playing for guaranteed money. The critics, it just makes me laugh because that’s what we’re doing. We don’t want to talk about it on tour, but we are getting it.”

Unlike the DP World Tour — where tournaments have handed out seven-figure sums to stars to play in their events — the practice of appearance fees is prohibited by the PGA Tour. However, many events find workarounds to this rule in the form of off-the-course endorsement contracts.

For example, Zurich sponsors a number of professional golfers, and most of those players will play in the Zurich Classic. Tournaments can also pay players for speaking engagements for week-of events during tournament weeks.

In a statement to ESPN, the PGA Tour reiterated its stance against appearance fees while acknowledging these other avenues for payment.

“We are aware that certain tournament sponsors may contract with a player to perform a sponsor-related activity during tournament week for which they receive nominal compensation,” the PGA Tour statement said. “This is permissible under our guidelines.”

LIV Golf ended its inaugural eight-event season last week in Miami. Watson, who did not play in any LIV events due to injury, is expected to be the captain of one of the league’s franchises in 2023.

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Phil Mickelson drew the short straw.

“This sucks, right?” the six-time major winner said, rubbing his forehead in a mock show of misery.

In the unique format for LIV Golf’s season finale at Trump National Doral, captains must face each other in singles during the first two days of competition. On Wednesday, the team selections were announced for the quarter-finals, with the higher seeds getting to choose their opponents.

With the top four seeds getting a bye, that gave Brooks Koepka of No. 5 seed Smash the first pick. He selected No. 12 seed Niblicks, which means he’ll face Harold Varner III, designated by non-playing captain Bubba Watson for the team’s top spot.

“He’s been calling me the wrong name all year, Bruce” Koepka said of Watson, an on-course commentator during LIV events this season while he rehabs from knee surgery. “I felt like it was a good opportunity to get back at him.”

Koepka beat Varner 2&1 earlier this year in a matchplay tournament in Austin, Texas. “This is a new day,” Varner said. “It’s a different tour.” Added Watson: “Harold told me he’s definitely getting a point against Bruce.”

Next came sixth-seeded Majesticks, with captain Ian Poulter selecting Iron Heads to set up a match against Kevin Na. “I figured Kevin and I hit it really short, and we could just hold hands down every fairway,” Poulter said with a smile.

Then came seventh-seeded Torque. Captain Joaquin Niemann opted to face Cleeks and a match against Martin Kaymer. Asked why he picked Cleeks, Niemann replied: “Because I didn’t want to pick Punch.” In other words, he didn’t want any part of Smith.

That left the last two remaining teams — Mickelson’s Hy Flyers and Smith’s Punch — setting up a nice little exchange between the two.

“Look at Cam smile,” Mickelson said, nodding at Smith sitting a few seats away on the dais. “Look how happy he is. This didn’t really work out the way we had planned at all.”

Smith played along. “Yeah, I feel good,” he said. “The way Phil hits his driver around here, I think he’ll be dropping a few balls out there.”

Mickelson just shrugged. “I mean, the guy is the Champion Golfer of the Year. There’s not much I can say. But I have won here. Just sayin’. Have you even played here at Doral? I’ve won here at Doral.”

Replied Smith: “Twenty years ago. I was two when Phil won around here.”

OK, bit of an exaggeration there. Mickelson’s win at Doral came in 2009. Smith was 15 years old. But you get the drift.

“I think you were at that clinic that I gave,” Mickelson fired back at Smith. “It’s nice to see you were paying attention.”

OK, it’s doubtful the 52-year-old Mickelson, with 57 career wins, is actually fretting about his match with Smith. But if he does need something positive to lean on, how about this: He’s 4-2-0 in singles competition against Australians. In fact, the last time Mickelson played a singles match, he beat Jason Day in 2019.

On Wednesday, though, he attempted all measures to avoid Smith. Mickelson even tried to coerce Koepka into choosing Hy Flyers as the opponent for Smash, which would’ve meant a Mickelson v Koepka match. As Mickelson pointed out, that would’ve given Koepka a chance to avenge the 2021 PGA Championship — which Mickelson won by two strokes over Koepka and Stinger GC captain Louis Oosthuizen.

“You could pick our team and we could play each other,” Mickelson told Koepka. “I’m just clarifying the rules because I don’t know if everybody understands.”

Mickelson is the only LIV Golf member with more major wins that Koepka’s four. But Koepka has achieved something Mickelson never did — and now saw an opening to mention it.

“You probably don’t know this because you’ve never been No. 1 in the world … when you finish at the end of the year, they give you a little trophy,” Koepka said. “I’ve got two of those, so I could bring one of them to show you.”

Replied Mickelson: “That’s a beautiful green shirt. Do you have a green jacket?”

“I do not,” Koepka said. “But I will, though. Don’t worry, I will.”

While the Mickelson v Smith match will generate plenty of hype going into Friday’s quarter-finals, it will be just one of three matches played between Hy Flyers and Punch. Like all the team v team matches in the first two rounds, whichever team wins two matches will advance to Saturday’s semi-finals, most likely against one of the top four seeded teams.

Mickelson then offered his true master plan. He hopes Matthew Wolff will beat Smith’s buddy Marc Leishman in the other singles match, and the duo of Bernd Wiesberger-Cameron Tringale can defeat Punch’s Matt Jones and Wade Ormsby in foursomes.

Said Mickelson of Wolff: “His length allows him to see this golf course totally different, in a much more aggressive frame of mind. … I really like him in singles, and I really like Bernd and Cameron together and the cohesiveness that they provide.

“Then Cameron Smith and I will naturally be irrelevant is the game plan.”

It’s doubtful that anything those two golfers — one already in the World Golf Hall of Fame, the other already have met the criteria for consideration — ever do inside the ropes will be irrelevant. But if it means his Hy Flyers stay alive, Mickelson will try any and all tactics. No telling what else he has in store the next two days.

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The post Mickelson faces up to facing Cameron as the jibes fly ahead of LIV Golf quarter-finals appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Evin Priest
LIV Golf recruit Bubba Watson says he has accepted the risk of a Masters ban by Augusta National despite being a two-time winner of the green jacket.

The left-handed Watson was unveiled more than a month ago as one of several major champions to have joined LIV Golf, although he still hasn’t competed while nursing an injury and is a non-playing captain. In that time, Watson said he’d had a tough conversation with his children about the uncertainty of playing in golf’s four majors. The likelihood is Watson will be free to play the Masters as a past champion (2012, 2014) but that isn’t guaranteed.

“For me, it’s a weird situation being a Masters champion; right now, we can play in it, and I’m hoping and praying they make the right decisions,” Watson said ahead of this week’s LIV Golf Invitational Boston. “I sat my kids down and told them there is a possibility we can’t go to Augusta. If they [Augusta National] tell me I can’t go, [even as a] past champion, then I don’t want to be there anyway because that’s just the wrong way to look at it.”

LIV recruits know their participation triggers a concrete ban by the PGA Tour, but they don’t know what stance will be taken by the organisations that run golf’s four majors: the Masters (Augusta National), PGA Championship (PGA of America), US Open (USGA) and the Open Championship (R&A).

Bubba Watson. David Cannon

Given this year’s US Open and Open Championship came after LIV Golf’s first event in June, the USGA and R&A made public statements on the eligibility of LIV recruits in their championships — they were allowed to play. However, the Masters and PGA were staged before LIV kicked off its inaugural event. Augusta National and the PGA of America have not yet had to confirm whether LIV golfers will be allowed to tee it up going forward.

World No. 2 Cameron Smith was unveiled on Monday as LIV’s biggest recruit to date. The 29-year-old Australian has five years’ worth of security when it comes to the majors having just won the 150th Open at St Andrews, but said he hoped LIV events received Official World Golf Ranking points soon.

“I hope that these world ranking points will sort themselves out before my exemption is up,” Smith said Wednesday at his introductory press conference. “I think to the fans of major championship golf, it may be a little bit unfair on them. Majors are about having the best guys in the best field on the best golf courses.”

LIV has an application before the board of OWGR for ranking points, but has not yet received a response. Many predict it will be denied based on several shortfalls in the criteria such as field sizes needing to be 75 on average, a 36-hole cut (even for 54-hole events) and an open qualifying school.

But World No. 19 Joaquin Niemann — who was announced Monday by LIV alongside Smith, Anirban Lahiri, Marc Leishman, Harold Varner III and Cameron Tringale — was blunt when asked if LIV golfers should be free to play the majors. He pointed to the fact 13 of the world’s current top 50 golfers are now LIV players.

“We earn our place in the majors and if they want to see real competition, they have to have the top players,” said Niemann. “That’s why the majors are there.”

Varner was more relaxed about golf’s grandest stage. He said the financial stability gained through his guaranteed money offer was a trade-off he was willing to accept. “For me, [the majors] weighed a lot,” Varner said. “This was my first year playing in every major, so it was cool. But like I think it’s way cooler making sure my kid doesn’t have to worry about anything.”

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The post LIV Golf’s Bubba Watson still hopes he’s welcome at the Masters. If not, ‘I don’t want to be there anyway’ appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.