Tiger Woods out with LIV Golf pro who his agent just DUMPED ahead of The Masters
Tiger Woods' agent dumped LIV Golf's Thomas Pieters two months ago, and now they're out together in R3 of The Masters.
Tiger Woods will be out with LIV Golf's Thomas Pieters in the third round of The Masters, the big-hitting Belgian that Woods' agent Mark Steinberg recently dumped from his management stable.
Sungjae Im is the third member of the three-ball, which tees off the 10th tee at 1.06pm local time (6.06pm UK time).
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That will be the same time as when Masters leader Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm and amateur Sam Bennett tee off the 1st tee.
Woods, Pieters and Im all made the cut on the number at 3-over par, which is 15 strokes behind LIV Golf's Koepka.
It meant Woods earned yet another Masters record for most consecutive cuts (23) made at Augusta National.
Woods joins Gary Player and Fred Couples in having achieved this feat in golf's first major of the season.
Pieters admitted earlier this week that this week could be his final ever Tournament.
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Steinberg, who is a partner at Excel Sports Management, has an impressive client roster of golfers including Woods, Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa.
He has managed Woods since 1998.
Pieters was recently announced as one of six new LIV Golf signings ahead of their first tournament of the new season in February.
News of Pieters' dumping by Steinberg was first reported on Twitter by Alan Shipnuck, the man who revealed Phil Mickelson's controversial comments about Saudi Arabia and the PGA Tour last season.
Pieters did not even find out about Steinberg's decision from the agent himself.
It was passed on by someone else.
Steinberg now has zero player representation on LIV Golf.
Shipnuck tweeted:
Shipnuck added:
The decison to axe Pieters from Excel Sports Management came a week after Pieters expressed his disappointment at being shunned an invite into Woods' own Genesis Invitational at Riviera.
Pieters tweeted:
Despite being ranked in the top 35 of the world rankings at the time, Pieters was overlooked for a place in the field.
A few days later, he left for LIV Golf.
Perhaps Woods had caught of wind of it?
Pieters has insisted his decision to join the breakaway tour had nothing to do with his angry tweet over his PGA Tour snub.
Bookmakers had Pieters odds-on to make the European Ryder Cup team this year.
But that was before his move to LIV Golf.
Apparently Pieters had been "courted by LIV Golf officials for months", according to a report in The Telegraph.
It is said that Pieters accepted a $10m fee to join LIV Golf.
Apparently a position to join Bubba Watson's RangeGoats team became available after Hudson Swafford picked up an injury ruling him out for much of the season.
Pieters told Golf Digest's Evin Priest: "Hudson got injured, and I had a call saying do you want the spot. You don't wish ill on anyone, and I hope Hudson recovers soon. As a professional you have to take opportunities when they arise. It has been a whirlwind since then, really, sorting everything out and getting everything ready over the weekend."
Check out a full list of Masters R3 Tee Times in full below:
Players will go off both the 1st and 10th tees*
- 11:30: Adam Scott, Patrick Cantlay, Cameron Smith
- 11:30*: Sepp Straka, Harold Varner III, Dustin Johnson
- 11:42: Tom Kim, Keegan Bradley, Xander Schauffele
- 11:42*: Scottie Scheffler, Tommy Fleetwood, Tony Finau
- 11:54: Hideki Matsuyama, Harris English, Matt Fitzpatrick
- 11:54*: Sahith Theegala, Abraham Ancer, Mito Pereira
- 12:06: Kyoung-Hoon Lee, Ryan Fox, Patrick Reed
- 12:06*: Tyrrell Hatton, Max Homa, Chris Kirk
- 12:18: Justin Rose, Russell Henley, Shane Lowry
- 12:18*: Taylor Moore, Si Woo Kim, Zach Johnson
- 12:30: Gary Woodland, Phil Mickelson, Joaquin Niemann
- 12:30*: Fred Couples, Mackenzie Hughes, Seamus Power
- 12:42: Sam Burns, Jordan Spieth, Cameron Young
- 12:42*: J.T. Poston, Talor Gooch, Keith Mitchell
- 12:54: Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland, Jason Day
- 12:54*: Charl Schwartzel, Billy Horschel, Scott Stallings
- 1:06: Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm, Sam Bennett
- 1:06*: Thomas Pieters, Tiger Woods, Sungjae Im
Andy first joined the brand on a month's work experience back in April 2011, and he now assumes the Editor role. When Andy joined GolfMagic it was a small site with potential.
