The Masters is a reunion of the world's best players — but the numbers are shrinking

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — More than golf’s first major championship of the year, the Masters represents unification. This is the first time since July at the British Open the best players regardless of their tours compete against each other — same course, same tournament, same television network.

“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.”

Still unclear at Augusta National is for how much longer.

Saudi-funded LIV Golf has 13 players at the Masters, seven of them former champions who can play as long as they want. That’s down from 18 a year ago. Only nine LIV players are assured of being back to Augusta National next year, depending on how they fare in the majors this year.

Ridley offered little hope the pathway for LIV to Augusta National was about to get wider.

He said the Official World Golf Ranking was a “legitimate determiner” of the best in golf, bad news for a rival league that does not get world ranking points. And while the Masters annually reviews its criteria for invitations, Ridley announced no new changes.

Instead, he leaned on the Masters being an invitational, and the club alone decides who it deems worthy of getting that elegant, cream-colored invitation in the mail.

“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.

The battle is for a green jacket, but that might not be the only competition.

It will be difficult to look at a leaderboard without considering who is with LIV Golf. That much hasn’t changed from last year — the first Masters since LIV was launched — and LIV certainly showed the 54-hole, no-cut league didn’t affect them. Three players were among the top four on the final leaderboard.

And just like last year, there is no animosity inside the ropes.

Phil Mickelson and Joaquin Niemann from LIV Golf played a practice round with Akshay Bhatia, the final player into the field because of his Texas Open victory last week. Xander