Wyndham Clark's LIV Golf comments return to haunt him after horror Masters second round

Masters debutant Wyndham Clark called out LIV Golf and its 54-hole tournaments compared to the 74-hole PGA Tour format after his opening round at Augusta National

Wyndham Clark calling out LIV Golf for its 54-hole tournaments has backfired after the US Open champion missed the cut at his maiden Masters.

Clark, 30, commented following a one-over-par round of 71 on Thursday. After starting strongly with three birdies on the front nine, two bogeys and a double bogey followed to leave the debutant eight shots off the clubhouse leader Bryson DeChambeau.

Despite trailing the LIV Golf player, Clark spoke bullishly at the end of Day 1 about still being capable of overcoming that deficit and fancying his chances of contending. A debutant has not won the year's first major since Fuzzy Zoeller managed the feat 45 years ago in 1979, but that did not deter the world number four.

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"We've got 54 holes," he remarked, looking ahead to the final three days. "In LIV Golf, they only play 54, so I like my chances. We've got a lot of golf left. As you can see, someone [DeChambeau] shot seven-under. I could do that tomorrow."

Clark, however, finished seven-over after a second round that featured seven bogeys across the final 13 holes. That left the American a shot short of making the cut, finishing on the same score as LIV Golf's Sergio Garcia.

The 2017 champion was one of five players from the league to miss the cut. Fellow former winners Bubba Watson (ten-over), Charl Schwartzel (11-over) and Dustin Johnson (13-over) all finished well adrift, with Adrian Meronk (14-over) failing to make the cut for a second straight year.

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But that meant eight made it through to the weekend, including DeChambeau, who still had a tie of the lead at six-under.

Patrick Reed finished even par ahead of Brooks Koepka and Tyrrell Hatton on two-over. Joaquin Niemann, defending champion Jon Rahm and Phil Mickelson also made it, ensuring the LIV circuit were still in play for the weekend.

But Clark is not after a round to forget, only further highlighting his unprompted mention of LIV Golf. The three-time PGA Tour winner has also previously been open about at least entertaining the idea of joining the league.

"I met with LIV and went through those discussions," Clark has acknowledged. "I wanted to see what they could bring to the table.

"I ultimately declined to go to LIV because I felt like I still had a lot of things left in the tank on the PGA Tour, and I wanted to chase records; I wanted to chase world ranking.

“My dream is to try to be one of the top players in the world if not the top player. I just grew up always imagining winning PGA Tour events. So I ultimately, I chose my legacy over LIV… that’s really what it came down to.”