WGC Broadcast Leaves out LIV Golfers From Previous Winners List

The WGC Dell Technologies Matchplay has made for some thrilling viewing this past week, but one particular graphic had many talking on Twitter earlier today.

Former winners Bubba Watson (2017) and Dustin Johnson (2018) were seemingly omitted in a TV visual that showed the previous victors at the event dating back to Luke Donald 2011.

This is really lame. For reference, there was no event in 2020 due to covid but Bubba and DJ won it in 2017/18. Does any golf fan really want to see history re-written just because players are playing a different tour? I sure don’t. It’s just getting pathetic now, imo. https://t.co/Q6QUBS3uS7

— Flushing It (@flushingitgolf) March 25, 2023

Every other year was present on the list, except for 2020 when the pandemic meant no tournament was played.

It seems a bit of a coincidence, only leaving out the two winners who have since gone on to the LIV Golf tour.

This sort of thing actually feeds into benefits for LIV Golf – their main issue is that it doesn’t really stand for anything due to the amount of mixed messages. We heard grow the game, then ‘golf – but louder,’ then some words about making the sport more fun. Although watching Phil shoot 75 while playing in shorts doesn’t exactly compare to Rory going 62-64 at the Dell Tech.

The overarching narrative was that these players were going to be paid a lot – and there are plenty of positives that have come out of the startup tour. What the PGA doesn’t need to do is start rewriting history and conveniently leaving out names that have been successful previously.

It is actually beneficial to highlight the previous success LIV Golfers have had – and then realising that the last LIV Golfer to win here was five years ago. All the PGA Tour needs to do is look backward, acknowledge, and move on to the future. No one on the LIV Tour is currently playing their best golf – save for David Howell.

A cheap shot nonetheless if the graphic was a deliberate shun towards LIV Golfers. Two decorated golfers in their own right, Bubba and DJ, have four majors between them, including three green jackets. At the time, the Dell Tech was likely proud of their champions. It seems wrong to denounce their previous efforts – we do not need cancel culture entering the sporting realms.

Cover Image Via Twitter