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This would possibly get awkward.
Neglect the menu of cheeseburgers, firecracker shrimp, rib-eyes and redfish. This 12 months’s Masters Champions Dinner on Tuesday night time can have PGA Tour gamers assembly face-to-face with six former colleagues who’ve defected to LIV Golf, the Saudi-financed league.
The LIV golfers Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson, Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia and Charl Schwartzel can be shut collectively for drinks and dinner with Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth, each outspoken critics of the previous PGA gamers who left for LIV Golf.
There have already been heated public exchanges between the gamers. And whereas some gamers downplay the interplay on the dinner, others say it’s inconceivable to disregard the rift.
Scottie Scheffler, who received the Masters Event final 12 months and is internet hosting the standard occasion at which previous Masters winners are invited, just lately joked that Watson ought to have a separate desk. Watson took the remark in stride.
“Hey, so long as I’m on the Champions Dinner, I’m advantageous,” Watson stated at a current information convention. “I’ll sit wherever he tells me. It’s advantageous. So long as I’m allowed again, I’ll sit wherever he needs me to. I’ll sit exterior and simply stare within the window.”
Scheffler later put the night in perspective.
“With Augusta Nationwide being such a particular place and with the historical past of the sport and whatnot,” he stated. “I feel we will put all our stuff apart and simply get collectively for a enjoyable meal, all in a room collectively and simply form of have a good time the sport of golf and Augusta Nationwide and simply hang around.”
Johnson, the 2020 Masters champion, stated just lately that he didn’t anticipate any issues on the dinner.
“I heard what was stated about attainable stress on the dinner, however there is not going to be any stress from me.” he stated. “In addition to, I nonetheless have an incredible relationship with all my fellow Masters champions,”
The 2-time winner José Olazábal of Spain informed the golf author Bernie McGuire that “if Bubba Watson asks me to go the salt or no matter, I can be blissful to go him no matter Bubba or some other of the guy Masters winners want for.
“Every one among us who sit down on the Champions Dinner are within the room that night time as we’ve got received at Augusta Nationwide and, as I stated, I respect every and everybody within the room as they’re fellow Masters winners, and in addition what they’ve achieved of their careers,” Olazábal stated.
Patrick Reed, who received the Masters in 2018 and now performs for LIV Golf, stated the dinner ought to concentrate on Scheffler, not the continued drama.
“The factor is, the Champions Dinner has nothing to do with myself or some other individual in that room apart from Scottie Scheffler,” Reed informed Golf Digest. “That’s his dinner. My experiences throughout these dinners have been superb. We’re at all times speaking about previous experiences at Augusta, how the opposite guys have received the [Masters], what obstacles they needed to overcome, the pictures they pulled off of their experiences.”
“I’m going to really feel advantageous,” Garcia stated in March. “I don’t have any issues with anybody, and I strive to not make an enormous deal out of it. I’m going to be there as a result of I earned it, as a result of I deserve it, and I’m going to take pleasure in it. I hope the remainder of the blokes do the identical.”
Tom Clavin, who wrote “One for the Ages: Jack Nicklaus and the 1986 Masters,” stated in an interview that the dinner can be fascinating as a result of it mixes younger LIV golfers with the elder statesmen.
“It’s fascinating that the Champions Dinner should be the primary time because the schism that a number of of the prime gamers are breaking bread collectively,” Clavin stated. “However there’s additionally the generational facet. At different tourneys there may be nothing just like the presence of older gamers like on the Masters. Think about [Ben] Crenshaw sitting subsequent to a younger LIV participant, or [Jack] Nicklaus and Mickelson. But Masters custom additionally calls for civility. I’d like to be a fly on that wall.”
At a current LIV occasion in Tucson, Ariz., Mickelson, the three-time Masters champion, didn’t deal with the dinner particularly, however spoke about reuniting with mates from the PGA Tour.
“No expectations,” he stated. “We’re grateful to only be capable of play and compete and be part of it. A variety of the individuals there which are taking part in and competing within the Masters are mates for many years, and I’m trying ahead to seeing them once more.”
Throughout a information convention on the Genesis Invitational in Los Angeles in February, Tiger Woods was requested what his demeanor can be on the dinner and if the dinner can be uncomfortable.
“That’s an incredible query as a result of I don’t know as a result of I haven’t been round them,” Woods stated in regards to the LIV Golf gamers. “I don’t know what that response’s going to be. I do know that a few of our friendships have actually taken a special path, however we’ll see when all that transpires.”
Woods agreed that any spat shouldn’t take away from honoring Scheffler.
“The Champions Dinner goes to be clearly one thing that’s talked about,” Woods stated. “We as a complete must honor Scottie, Scottie’s the winner, it’s his dinner. So ensuring that Scottie will get honored appropriately but in addition realizing the character of what has transpired and the folks that have left, simply the place our conditions are both legally, emotionally. There’s lots there.”
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