Why are there no LIV Golf players if Match Play is a WGC event?

The absence of LIV Golf players at the Match Play has made clear what everyone suspected all along — the World Golf Championships were part of the International Federation of PGA Tours, but it was the PGA Tour running the show.

That’s why nine players from LIV Golf who were among the top 66 in the world last week (Justin Rose and Justin Thomas chose not to play), were not eligible.

Also declared ineligible was Thomas Pieters, who joined LIV this year but was not a PGA Tour member when he left.

Matches and tee times from the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Championship

The PGA Tour said players wishing to enter are “subject to acceptance by the host tour” and must meet the eligibility requirements.

As for Pieters not being eligible — assuming he even wanted to play — the Tour said that “any player who has participated in an event or series of events … that the membership has been informed is not authorized by the PGA Tour is ineligible to compete in any event sanctioned by the PGA Tour” for one year from the final round of the unauthorized event.

Of the 64-man field at Austin Country Club, 11 of them would not be playing if not for LIV.