A Masters win could help LIV Golf get much-needed eyeballs on league

AUGUSTA, Ga.— There was a moment in LIV Golf’s final round Sunday at Doral when the top of the leaderboard was littered with past Masters champions.Three-time green jacket winner Phil Mickelson, at age 54, was right there in the mix to capture his first LIV title.Jon Rahm, the 2023 Masters winner, was there, too.So were Sergio Garcia (2017), Patrick Reed (2018) and Charl Schwartzel (2011).LIV Golf couldn’t have scripted a better finish with Masters week awaiting the day after that final round.Its only problem was that delicious leaderboard, in the end, didn’t finish with one of those green jacket winners at the top, with Aussie Marc Leishman winning.LIV Golf is in desperate need of more eyeballs on its product.Despite the stars playing on the PGA Tour’s rival circuit, it feels like those players are plying their trade in Witness Protection.The LIV television rating numbers have been lower than “I Dream of Jeannie’’ reruns.But there’s surely a hope on the part of LIV that if one of its 12 players in the Masters field wins this week at Augusta National, it would raise the LIV profile and add credibility to the tour since the PGA Tour loyalists and the powers that be on the Official World Ranking demean it as inferior competition because of the shortened 48-player fields and playing 54 holes instead of the customary 72.It’s a difficult thing to measure, because there’s been no tangible evidence that Bryson DeChambeau’s U.S.

Open win last June at Pinehurst moved the needle.But the more LIV players excel in major events it cannot help but raise their profile.In last year’s Masters, DeChambeau and Cam Smith finished tied for sixth as the highest-finishing LIV players.Tyrrell Hatton finished tied for ninth and Reed tied for 12th.In 2023, Rahm won, Mickelson and Brooks Koepka finished tied for second and Reed was tied for fourth.In 2022, Smith was tied for third, Dustin Johnson, the 2020 Masters winner, was tied for 12th and Schwartzel tied for 1...