LIV Golf’s Bubba Watson: ‘If the Masters Doesn’t Want Me, I Don’t Want to Be There’

In addition to the newest LIV Golf members, including Open Championship winner Cameron Smith, making their debut on the new series this weekend in Boston, former two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson is in attendance after joining the series in July, but he won’t be playing in the series until 2023 due to injury.

Typically, winning a green jacket gets you a lifetime exemption into the United States’ most famous tournament, but Augusta National plays by its own set of rules. They invite who they want, and according to a report last year, the club did threaten those who joined LIV Golf prior to the 2022 Masters by taking their invitation away for that tournament.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Watson, who won at Augusta in 2012 and ’14, has run out of exemptions in the other three majors but would be able to play in the Masters for as long as he wanted to, based on the unwritten rules.

If that happens to change, it didn’t sound like Watson—speaking at a press conference Wednesday ahead of LIV’s event in Boston—was going to lose sleep over it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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LIV Golf is trying to have its events included in the Official World Golf Ranking system, which would increase the chances of its members being able to play in the four majors. While it remains to be seen whether the OWGR will accept LIV’s application, it’s a no-brainer for Watson.

“The No. 2 player in the world [Cameron Smith] is now here,” he told reporters. “So if you’re going to try to see the best players in the world, then you should have World Ranking points because these are the best players in the world here, just like everywhere else across the world.”

Cover Image Via CBS Sports