LIV drawcards sense a thawing in golf's cold war as they reject claims of being puppets for Saudi Arabian sports-washing.
Ahead of LIV Golf's first tournament in Australia, leading players Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau believe the narrative surrounding their breakaway league is shifting.
Last year's inaugural season was pockmarked by outcry at being funded by Saudi Arabia and anger from within the PGA Tour, who banned LIV players.
But the American trio, among the main attractions at the Grange Colf Club in Adelaide from Friday to Sunday, believe the recent US Masters played a big part in warming the once-frosty relations.
"It was the best thing for the fans to see what happened at the Masters," Koepka told reporters in Adelaide on Wednesday.
"I could run into 15 (PGA) Tour guys if I wanted to in a day and nobody has really had any negative feedback, any negative thing to say - and that would be the time to say it.
"But it was good just for the fans to see that we still communicate, we still play together, we still practice together, do everything the exact same.
"We're still the same people."
At the Masters, Koepka finished tied for second with fellow LIV golfer Phil Mickelsen while Patrick Reed, another on the breakaway tour, tied for fourth.
Johnson was heartened by the reception for LIV's cohort at the Masters.
"The fans were great ... everyone just respects Augusta and the Masters, it's more about the golf than what tour you play on," Johnson said.
"That's how it should be all the time."
DeChambeau said "nothing changed" with his relationships with fellow players and fans.
"A lot of it's the media ... I understand it, I think we all do," he said.
"But ... we're all golfers. We still play great golf, as you can see at the Masters, you had three of the four up at the top were LIV players."
DeChambeau rejected suggestions the LIV tour was a sports-washing exercise by Saudi Arabia.
"We talked about that last year and we already kind of kicked that to the curb," he said.
"It's something that I truthfully believe is completely inaccurate.
"People have their opinions and their perspectives on it. But we certainly don't feel that way, we're playing golf."
DeChambeau said the LIV concept, featuring teams as well as individual honours in three-day tournaments, was bound to grow.
"How big can the league be? As big as it can be," he said.
"We're looking to make this the biggest league out there and I don't say that softly either.
"We all see the vision. We see the potential with the teams and the franchises ... we think this could eventually be the norm for the game of golf."
The Australian tournament will be contested before sell-out crowds at the Grange sandbelt course in Adelaide's west with about 35,500 tickets sold. 25,000 of those were snapped up in the initial 48 hours of sales.
