Eight LIV Golf stars drop out of Masters as civil war with PGA rages on, with Open champ and Ryder Cup star among snubs

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EIGHT LIV Golf stars have been snubbed for the upcoming Masters – including a former Open champion and a Ryder Cup star.

The first major of the year gets underway on Thursday with the world’s top golfers taking on the iconic challenge at Augusta National.

Abraham Ancer is one of eight LIV Golf stars who played at the 2023 Masters but is not included this time around[/caption]

But amid the ongoing civil war in the sport between the PGA Tour and the LIV breakaway rebellion, a host of big names from the Saudi league were overlooked for this week’s showpiece event.

A total of 89 players are named on the Masters 2024 player list – with 13 of those currently on LIV’s books.

That is down from 21 LIV stars at the 2023 tournament, which was won by Jon Rahm who has since defected to the controversial tour.

Some LIV men have various exemptions gaining them qualification into the event while recent stars to switch across get in thanks to their performances on the PGA and European Tours in 2023.

For example, recent additions Tyrrell Hatton and Adrian Meronk are in, as is world No3 and defending champion Rahm.

Bubba Watson, Charl Schwartzel, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia all have lifetime exemptions as previous Green Jacket winners.

Similarly, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith are in the field thanks to their major successes elsewhere in recent years.

And Joaquin Niemann – who finished T16 last year – was given a special invitation to play.

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However, eight major LIV men who played in 2023 are not going to tee it up at Augusta this time around.

Former world No11 Abraham Ancer won the recent LIV event in Hong Kong but for the first time since 2019, he won’t be involved in the Masters.

The 2010 Open winner Louis Oosthuizen can play at Royal Troon this year but his drop in the world rankings means he has not qualified for Augusta.

Like Oosthuizen, Kevin Na withdrew from the Masters in 2023 and is now way down at 1257th in the world rankings.

Thomas Pieters was part of the defeated European Ryder Cup team in 2016 – scoring four points out of five at Hazeltine – but the Belgian has no way of getting his name in the Masters field.

Talor Gooch, Mito Pereira, Jason Kokrak and Harold Varner III all played in 2023 but miss out this time around.

The likes of fellow LIV stars Paul Casey, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter have not qualified while Graeme McDowell, Henrik Stenson and Martin Kaymer’s exemptions have expired.