There’s not a lot of highly competitive golf left in Phil Mickelson’s tank. He led the line of players defecting from the PGA Tour to join the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf two years ago, and has finished in the top 10 only twice in the 26 events he’s played.
He could be playing on the PGA Tour Champions circuit, as he’s 53. It’s easy to see why oddsmakers list Mickelson somewhere between 125-to-1 and 300-to-1 to win the Masters, placing him in the range of golfers like Jake Knapp, Kevin Na, Eric Cole and Adam Svensson.
But here’s a question to ask the guy sitting on the next bar stool: Where did Mickelson finish in last year’s Masters?
The answer, believe it or not, is second.
Mickelson was never a threat to Jon Rahm but put together a final-round 65 to tie 54-hole leader Brooks Koepka for second. It marked his 16th top-10 at Augusta National, where he built his legend by winning three times (2004, ’06 and ’10).
One of the fascinating features of the Masters is that it is one of the few events where all of the world’s best golfers are welcome, whether they stayed with the PGA Tour or took the guaranteed money being offered by LIV Golf.
There are 13 LIV members in the 89-man field for the Masters, including the defending champ. Rahm was still on the PGA Tour side of the split when he out-dueled Koepka to win last April but shook hands with Greg Norman and LIV’s deal-makers in December, with reports of his guarantee ranging from $300 million to $550 million.
Eighteen LIV golfers qualified for the 2023 Masters but it is becoming harder for them to qualify with LIV events not registering in the Official World Golf Rankings. You can see why that is a point of great contention among LIV golfers.
The list of those playing this years Masters: Bryson DeChambeau, Sergio Garcia, Tyrrell Hatton, Dustin Johnson, Koepka, Adrian Meronk, Mickelson, Joaquin Niemann, Rahm, Patrick Reed, Charl Schwartzel, Cameron Smith and Bubba Watson.
Garcia, Johnson, Mickelson, Rahm, Reed, Schwartzel and Watson qualified as past champions. DeChambeau, Hatton and Koepka qualified as past champions of other majors of the Players Championship. Hatton and Meronk were ranked within the top 50 in the OWGR, and Niemann was given a special exemption after winning once on the DP World Tour and twice in LIV events since November.
The list of LIV members who did not qualify for the Masters is headed by Talor Gooch, Louis Oosthuizen, Abraham Ancer, Mito Pereira, Harold Varner III, Paul Casey and Dean Burmester, who beat Garcia in a playoff to win last week’s LIV event in Miami.
The other three majors have also elected to include LIV members who qualify. There are currently eight LIV members eligible for the PGA Championship, nine eligible for the US Open and 13 eligible for the Open Championship.
It is a point of pride for LIV that 12 of their members made the Masters cut in 2023, with Koepka and Reed (tied for fourth) joining Mickelson in the top-10. Including Rahm, four of the top six finishers from last year enter this year’s event representing LIV. The only exceptions are Jordan Spieth and Russell Henley, who shared fourth with Reed.
PGA Tour members Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy head to Thursday’s first round with the lowest odds to win the Masters. But LIV members Rahm, Koepka, Niemann and DeChambeau are generally among the 10 players with the lowest odds.
McIlroy has become outspoken about the need for golf’s ruling bodies to bridge the chasm that was created when the the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, known as the Public Investment Fund, changed the financial landscape of the sport in 2022. The PGA Tour responded a year ago, adjusting its structure and elevating its prize money in an attempt to stop the exodus from its ranks.
It doesn’t appear a resolution is in sight. That makes events like the Masters even more interesting than they’ve always been.