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The 2023 PGA Championship is a golf rivalry showdown between the PGA Tour and the LIV Golf. Just like the 2023 Masters, even the second major of the year has also invited 18 LIV golfers.
The word of war keeps on going between the two tours. However, for the PGA Tour, it is always a win-win situation. Why? Because their players get points in OWGR, and the latter tour players do not!
Since the inception of a highly controversial Saudi-backed league, their players might have earned a massive sum of money but have lost their OWGR rankings drastically.
In April, at Augusta Masters, Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson pushed a major campaign for LIV by performing tremendously well. They wanted to show that even LIV players deserve to get OWGR points, despite playing on a 54-hole golf course.
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It is ironic that Dustin Johnson's recent win at LIV fetched him $4 million but zero OWGR points. But Jason Day, the 2023 AT&T Byron Nelson champion, jumped from 35th rank to 20th rank in the OWGR, despite winning almost half the amount that Johnson received.
The fact that the LIV golfers can win great points in the 2023 PGA Championship can be a blessing in disguise for them to prove their point.
Who are the LIV golfers slated to play at the 2023 PGA Championship?
A total of 18 golfers from LIV were invited after they qualified through the eligibility criteria released by the tournament officials. Here are their names:
- Abraham Ancer
- Dean Burmester
- Paul Casey
- Bryson DeChambeau
- Talor Gooch
- Dustin Johnson
- Martin Kaymer
- Sihwan Kim
- Brooks Koepka
- Anirban Lahiri
- Phil Mickelson
- Joaquin Niemann
- Mito Pereira
- Thomas Pieters
- Patrick Reed
- Cameron Smith
- Brendan Steele
- Harold Varner III
How did the LIV Golfers perform at the 2023 Augusta Masters?
Although Brooks Koepka missed the green jacket after playing six bogeys in the last round and finishing tied second, he was phenomenal since round 1 at the Augusta National Golf Club. On the last day, it was Phil Mickelson who showed his class and jumped to tied second position.
Interestingly, 12 LIV members managed to make the cut at the 2023 Masters. And to put the cherry on the top 3 players finished in the top-5 on the leaderboard.
Here are the final standings of LIV golfers at the 2023 Masters:
- Brooks Koepka - T2 (-8)
- Phil Mickelson - T2 (-8)
- Patrick Reed - T4 (-7)
- Joaquin Niemann - T16 (-2)
- Harold Varner III - T29Scores (+1)
- Cameron Smith - T34 (+4)
- Talor Gooch - T34 (+4)
- Abraham Ancer - T39 (+5)
- Mito Pereira - T43 (+6)
- Thomas Pieters - T48 (+8)
- Dustin Johnson - T48 (+8)
- Charl Schwartzel - T50 (+9)
Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, and 15 other LIV golfers are currently at the 2023 PGA Championship. It is now a matter of four rounds, that will show how did LIV players perform at the second major tournament of the year.
