The Masters leaderboard is delivering LIV Golf’s worst nightmare

I promise I didn't come into this year's Masters already determined to write a story like this. Even as a long-standing LIV Golf hater (support group meets Tuesdays and Thursdays), I thought that this would finally be the year that we collectively moved beyond the "it's not real golf!" cracks that have dogged the Saudi-backed tour pretty much since its inception. Sure, the format is goofy, and sure, the courses aren't in the same class, but there are still some incredible players over there — and with Bryson DeChambeau steadily improving his game at Augusta and Jon Rahm finally getting back in the winner's circle, it felt foolish to assume that LIV wouldn't make an impact this week.

Turns out I should've stuck to my guns. It would be one thing if just Bryson and Rahm failed to contend — funny, but hardly enough on which to hang a narrative. But when literally every single LIV golfer in the field fell flat in Round 1 ... I mean, at a certain point you have to call a spade a spade. And while their fans might still refuse to hear it, it's getting harder to ignore the harsh reality that playing on a second-rate tour slowly but surely drags you closer to being a second-rate player.

Everything that could go wrong for LIV Golf did go wrong in Round 1 at the Masters

The numbers are staggering. DeChambeau and Rahm will have a hard time just making the weekend, firing a 76 and 78, respectively. But the issue goes much deeper: In fact, not a single LIV player even managed to finish their opening round below par. Heck, only one of them, past champion Sergio Garcia, even managed to break even; every single other golfer, nine in all, shot a 73 or worse.

And somehow, it felt even worse watching in real time. Posting a disappointing score is one thing; lord knows Augusta hardly discriminates when it comes to giving the best players in the world hell, especially as the afternoon dragged on and the course became wickedly firm. But both Bryson and Rahm, major champions multiple times over, appeared to unravel as their rounds went along, as though their mental toughness had atrophied along with their games.

DeChambeau, 12 months after he seemed to take a real step forward in how he approaches this course, was right back to moaning about his equipment. Rahm, meanwhile, was his own worst enemy, losing more strokes on the green than just about anyone else in the field on Thursday — including several holes in which he played things well only to miss exceedingly makable par putts.

But while those were easily the two most high-profile failures on the day, they were far from alone. Fortunes could change as the tournament rolls along, true. Right now, though, LIV is certainly not beating the allegations.

LIV Golf's haters will only get louder after another major meltdown

Obviously, there's no way to prove that the move to LIV has been detrimental to the games of stars like DeChambeau and Rahm — even if you want to point to the compelling decline in results in recent years, you can't conclusively prove causality. But what we can say, especially after Thursday, is that if LIV were failing to provide an adequate test and keep sharpening its best players ... well, it would look a lot like what's happening now.

You'd be hard-pressed to come up with a more stark contrast between the courses that LIV frequents and Augusta National. For starters, you don't really need much of a short game to compete in the former, while the latter will consistently put you in difficult spots that require finesse to maneuver. Even beyond that, though, are the soft factors, more specifically the sort of competitive focus and stability required to survive this sort of test — something that even diehard LIV supporters would have to admit isn't exactly a point of emphasis.

It's unrealistic to expect DeChambeau and Rahm, talented as they are, to be able to flip that switch at a moment's notice. The only way to develop and maintain that muscle is to flex it, and opportunities are few and far between on their schedules. While LIV has at least carved out a foothole in the States, it's hard to imagine the tour will ever seriously rival the PGA Tour unless it can credibly claim a level of quality and seriousness, a sense that this is a real test. Unfortunately (or fortunately), it seems like we're even further away than I thought.