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At some point, there was great hope that the division surrounding men's professional golf would resolve itself as the game's best players once again cruised down Magnolia Lane at Augusta National.
Finally, last June, the PGA Tour announced a surprise framework agreement with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), backers of breakaway golf club LIV Golf and the sport's top disruptors.
However, nine months later, an agreement is still not possible. Deadlines have been extended, in-person discussions have been held, but unless a miracle happens in the next few weeks, the PGA Tour and LIV will continue to be at odds as the first tee shot for the 2024 Masters goes up in the air.
As frustrating as the split may be for golf fans, it lends itself to an interesting subplot before the first golf major of the year. Despite both sets of players' public desire to downplay the “us versus them” narrative, officials on both tours will surely be desperate for one of their players to win while important negotiations continue to take place in the background.
Ahead of golf's first major, The Independent takes an early look at the top contenders to win both tournaments.
Jon Rahm
Jon Rahm, who this time last year defeated LIV's Brooks Koepka with a stunning performance to win his second major, will now return not only as defending champion but also as the American's colleague, having moved to Saudi Arabia for £450m -Arabia supported circuit that made his mouth water last December.
The Spaniard has already spoken about the disappointment of not being able to defend three of the PGA Tour titles he won in 2023, so will no doubt relish the opportunity to remind everyone of his talents and become only the fourth consecutive winner at Augusta.
Despite failing to win any of his first four LIV events of 2024, the 29-year-old has yet to finish outside the top eight and is still as complete a golfer as ever. No doubt his performance this year will come with added pressure and noise, but that seems to be exactly the environment in which Rahm could thrive.
Scottie Scheffler
For a man with Scottie Scheffler's talents, it seemed unlikely in early March that the world's best golfer would go an entire year without a win. Within two weeks, however, the American killed that idea and won two consecutive tournaments, including becoming the first man ever to defend the Players Championship.
Despite his well-documented issues with the putter, Scheffler needed only a slight improvement in his form on the greens to use his ball-striking mastery to win the titles his consistency deserves.
Scottie Scheffler won the 2022 Masters
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The 27-year-old fended off questions comparing him to Tiger Woods after his win at TPC Sawgrass, but his form – if a 12-month period of sustained excellence can be called that – makes those analogies all the more difficult to make to ignore.
Scheffler won his first and only major at the Masters in 2022 and only finished outside the top ten at a major once last year. Rahm may be this week's defending champion, but Scheffler is undoubtedly the man to beat.
Brooks Koepka
After a tough stretch with injuries in 2022, Brooks Koepka seemed ready to make his way back onto the big stage of this tournament last year, but fell short after Rahm's outstanding performance on Sunday.
However, the American didn't have to wait long to break his nearly four-year winless major streak, claiming victory at the PGA Championship at Bay Hill the following month with a commanding two-shot victory.
While Scheffler revels in his worrying consistency, Koepka's everyday assessment is more hot and cold. Since moving to LIV, he has claimed three wins, but has only finished in the top ten once in the first four events.
Brooks Koepka won his fifth major at the PGA Championship last year
(Getty Images)
But the 33-year-old is the man for the big occasion and there is no bigger stage than Augusta. With two runner-up finishes at Augusta in his last five starts and probably the greatest major championship player of his generation, he's not one to overlook.
Rory McIlroy
Rory McIlroy has searched high and low for the winning formula to end his nearly decade-long major drought, but has so far been unsuccessful. The time seemed right at last year's US Open, only for the Northern Irishman to be denied by a coming-of-age performance from Wyndham Clark.
The 34-year-old crashed at Augusta last year and missed a cut after two bad days. However, this performance is the only time he has finished outside the top eight in the last eight major championships.
Rory McIlroy last won a major championship in 2014
(Getty Images)
The Masters is the only major tournament left for the Northern Irishman's career Grand Slam, and although early-season results on the PGA Tour have not been encouraging, he heads to Augusta with his sole focus on his game lies after he stepped down from the tour's policy board late last year. It could lift a vital weight from his shoulders, in a place that has tormented him more than most in recent years.
Wyndham Clark
The aforementioned Clark was a 120/1 underdog when he won the US Open title at Los Angeles Country Club last June, but his chances of doubling his tally at the Masters will be significantly slimmer.
Clark won for the first time on the PGA Tour just a month before his big success last year, but the American's performances since then have ensured he will not be viewed as a short-term major champion.
Wyndham Clark won the Pebble Beach Pro-Am earlier this year
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The 30-year-old picked up his second tour win at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February of this year and finished second to Scheffler in back-to-back weeks at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship. This April, Clark will compete for the first time in Augusta, but so far in his successful career there is no indication that such a prospect would faze him.
Joaquin Niemann
Joaquin Niemann was the only golfer willing to get involved in the LIV-PGA Tour rivalry before last year's Masters, suggesting he had a fire in his belly to outdo his PGA Tour rivals “because he knew that they hate us”.
An eventual T16 result didn't give him much to celebrate, but the Chilean returns to Georgia in the best shape of his life after enjoying a productive winter on the DP World Tour, followed by two wins in the first four LIV Events.
Such performances earned the 25-year-old a late invitation to the Masters, but after finishing at Augusta last year, which marked his first top-20 finish in a major, he now needs to take his game to another level when He wants to keep up with his invitation again and compete with the best in the game.
Xander Schauffele
Statistically speaking, no one in the world has been able to keep up with Scheffler in the last few months, although Xander Schauffele has made one hell of a fist of it. The consistency of the American's play has been breathtaking, although he may not have had any wins to boast of recently.
If there is one criticism of the 30-year-old, it is his inability to get over the line in the biggest moments. He held the overnight lead at the Players but saw it slip away when he failed to drop putts on Sunday, and despite his consistency at majors, which has earned him six top-five finishes, Schauffele never quite has got over the finish line when it really mattered.
Xander Schauffele has an impressive major record
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One of his best achievements was reaching T2 at the 2019 Masters and supporting Tiger Woods' fairytale victory. However, he is now playing the best golf of his career and the world No. 5 could well put the spotlight on his breakthrough.
Cameron Smith
A somewhat forgotten star since joining LIV, Cameron Smith was at one point the hottest player in golf, winning the Players Championship and the Open Championship in the same season.
A quiet character off the track, it's easy to forget the Australian's impressive record at Augusta, with four top ten finishes in the last six years. Having also put in impressive performances at the PGA Championship and US Open last year, finishing T9 and fourth respectively, it's clear there are few courses that can match the 30-year-old's aggressive style and flat-stick skills can.
With a T2 result at the recent LIV event in Hong Kong, Smith could be peaking at just the right time and could slip under the radar of his more outspoken and well-known LIV colleagues.
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