LIV Golf chairman spotted at Augusta watching The Masters

The Masters is a who's who of golf. Not only do the best players and amateurs in the entire world generally get invited to play every year, but the fans and golf personalities in attendance are also significant. This year, the eminent list of viewers includes the chairman of LIV Golf, Yasir Al-Rumayyan.

While he and the PGA Tour have yet to agree on the PIF x Tour merger, Al-Rumayyan is in attendance at Augusta National to watch arguably the biggest tournament of the season thus far.

Recently, PIF and the PGA Tour suffered a major setback in their negotiations. It's been nearly two years since they agreed to a deal, but they've made very little progress. The Tour just turned down a $1.5 billion investment from PIF because the deal stipulated that LIV Golf would continue as is.

Regardless, there are plenty of LIV Golf players at the Masters. The field is not exclusively for the PGA players. Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, and Patrick Reed are among those from LIV Golf.

Right now, the highest LIV player at the time of writing is Tyrrell Hatton. He is tied for second after shooting four-under through 14 holes. He's tied with Corey Conners, who is done for the day, and trailing Justin Rose, who's a blistering -5 through nine holes.

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Former Masters champ doubts PGA Tour and LIV Golf deal will happen soon

Tom Watson, a golfer who won two Masters Tournaments in 1977 and 1981, doesn't have a lot of optimism for the merger between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. He expressed his thoughts in the lead-up to the Masters tournament.

Tom Watson isn't confident (Image via Imagn)

Watson said via ESPN:

"They made their choice to play their own tour, and that's where they are right now. I don't see a real working mechanism for the two tours to get back together. I think that's one of the reasons you haven't seen an agreement since June two years ago."

Watson believes players want to reunite again:

"The one thing I do know is that Scottie Scheffler in his speech at the past champions dinner on Tuesday night said, 'I'm glad we're all together again.' So the players would like to get together. But it's really up to the powers that be to see if there's a framework in which the two tours can cooperate."

Watson thinks LIV might have damaged the PGA Tour, though. He said the one thing required of all PGA players is to get permission to play in other events. The Masters champion added:

"That's there to protect the sponsors of our PGA Tour so that the fields are not depleted of all the good players as they go and play other tournaments. That's the main requirement."

Watson does believe people smarter than he is can make something work, but he just doesn't see it happening anytime soon.