Members of LIV Golf may be welcome at Augusta National but the rebel circuit's polarising CEO Greg Norman did not get a Masters invite over concerns the Australian would be an unwanted distraction, club chairman Fred Ridley confirmed on Wednesday.
Tensions were high in the run-up to the year's first major as golfers from the feuding PGA Tour and LIV Golf headed to Georgia with battle lines drawn.
"The primary issue and the driver there is that I want the focus this week to be on the Masters competition, on the great players that are participating, the greatest players in the world. Widely considered the best player never to win the Masters, Norman has been persona non grata at many of golf's most prestigious events.
"Our statement in December, and particularly the comment that these actions had diminished the virtues of the game, I want to make a couple points," said Ridley. "These were personal decisions of these players, which I, you know, at a high level, don't necessarily agree with, but it really wasn't intended to go beyond that."
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