LIV Golf rebels appeared to be erased from history in a bizarre new TV graphic that has received widespread backlash on social media.
The Golf Channel in the United States wiped the names of LIV renegades Bubba Watson and Dustin Johnson from their "past champions" graphic during their live broadcast of the WGC Match Play on Saturday.
A familiar list shown during a tournament broadcast highlighted previous winners of the eminent event at the Austin Country Club, which is set to be scrapped in 2024 as part of a radical overhaul in the PGA Tour schedule. The winners all the way back to Team Europe Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald in 2011 are shown, but the glaring omission of two years on the graphic has fuelled inevitable accusations of bias against the contentious Saudi-funded LIV circuit.
Two-time Masters champion Watson - captain of LIV's 'Range Goats' team - won the tournament in 2017 and former Ryder Cup teammate Johnson clinched the title a year later.
But, rather conveniently, 2017 and 2018 are the only years missing from the winners list, along with 2020 when the event was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
And a tweet showing the graphic by "Golf Lover UK" has caused a huge stir online, with plenty of fans furious with the move by the Golf Channel, the US broadcaster that regularly showcases events on the PGA Tour.
"This is really lame," popular account "Flushing it" wrote. "Does any golf fan really want to see history re-written just because players are playing a different tour? I sure don’t."
Former US PGA champion Steve Elkington agreed: "Wonder why they’re doing this… Showing the players names who won doesn’t effect anything… does it?" Others deemed the omissions as "petty" and "pathetic," regardless of their opinions towards the divisive breakaway LIV series.
Watson and Johnson will be among the LIV golfers competing at The Masters next month and will attend a potentially awkward Champions Dinner with tensions still running high during golf's ongoing civil war.
Meanwhile, there will be a new name on the WGC Match Play trophy this year as Americans Sam Burns and Cameron Young battle it out for the title on Sunday. The unfancied duo caused huge upsets in the semi-finals as Burns dumped out defending champion Scottie Scheffler and Young defeated world no.3 Rory McIlroy.
