Remember Bubba Watson?

Watson hasn’t played on the PGA Tour since the PGA Championship on May 22, when the former Faulkner State All-American finished eight shots behind tournament winner Justin Thomas, a former Alabama All-American.

But as a two-time Masters champion, Watson will be on the course at Augusta National and back on the golf TV coverage of ESPN and CBS this week.

A torn meniscus sidelined Watson for the rest of the year after the PGA Championship. He returned from the knee injury with his first competitive round on Feb. 24, but most golf fans probably missed that, based on TV ratings for the LIV Golf Invitational Series.

LIV Golf is a circuit bankrolled by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. It held its first season of tournaments last year offering the largest purses in the sport’s history. LIV Golf also provided signup payments to attract players to commit to the tour, where the tournaments last 54 holes and don’t have cuts.

The new golf tour also has a team element, and Watson is one of the 12 team captains, leading the Range Goats.

But joining LIV Golf got Watson banned by the PGA Tour, as it did all the golfers who signed up for the new circuit. That doesn’t impact the Masters, which is independently operated. There are 19 ways to qualify for the Masters field, and 18 golfers from the LIV tour are at Augusta National this week.

Watson has a lifetime exemption into the Masters lineup because of his victories in the major tournament in 2012 and 2014.

The LIV Golf-PGA Tour split has been accompanied by some acrimonious comments directed from players toward players, but Watson doesn’t expect any friction at Augusta National this week.

“It’s only awkward in the media,” Watson told reporters at the LIV Golf event in Orlando, Florida, last week. “I’ve talked to people that are going to be there. I’m going to sign up with Jason Day and Cam Young in the par-three. Some guys have already asked me to play some practice rounds.

“Media is the only one that is pushing it. I have nothing against anybody. If you change jobs, I’m not mad at you. If you start reporting for somebody else — hey, man, it’s a better decision for you and your family, have at it.”

Not everyone shares Watson’s outlook.

Joaquin Niemann from LIV Golf said while the tournament is an individual competition, this year’s Masters will have a team element as the players from the two sides of the sport’s divide will be playing to put their tour in the best light.

“I think it’s going to be more fun knowing that they hate us, then go to the majors and beat them” Niemann told golf.com. “Since they gave us the notice that we’re going to be able to play the majors, I was like, it’s going to be so much fun just to play those four weeks — four weeks in the year against them and try to beat them. …

“I think there is a lot of players that — I don’t know if they don’t like us or they don’t like the decisions that we take, they don’t share the same thoughts that we do about coming here or not, but everybody took their own decision, and it’s going to be fun after everything they’ve been talking about it.”

In addition to Watson and Niemann, the LIV Golf players in the Masters field include:

· Abraham Ancer

· Bryson DeChambeau

· Sergio Garcia

· Talor Gooch

· Dustin Johnson

· Brooks Koepka

· Jason Kokrak

· Phil Mickelson

· Kevin Na

· Louis Oosthuizen

· Mito Pereira

· Thomas Pieters

· Patrick Reed

· Charl Schwartzel

· Cameron Smith

· Harold Varner III

Watson and Thomas are joined by Gordon Sargent and Danny Willett as the players with Alabama golf roots at the 87th Masters.

An Alabama High School Athletic Association Class 6A boys’ golf champion while playing for Mountain Brook and a winner of the Alabama Golf Association’s state junior and state amateur championships, Sargent received a special invitation to play in this year’s Masters. The 19-year-old won the NCAA Division I men’s golf tournament in May playing for Vanderbilt.

A former Jacksonville State golfer, Willett will be able to play in the Masters as long as he likes after winning the tournament in 2016.

Watson said he didn’t think the Masters would bar him from playing because of his switch to LIV Golf.

“It entered my mind because people asked questions,” Watson told the New York Times. “It never entered my mind like I thought they wouldn’t let past champions play. Their club is built on history, right? When you think about history, that’s one of the things they sell to the masses. They tell you past champions can play here until they call it quits. They honor the past, and so I thought for sure I was going to be able to play.

“Now you start having doubts when you see stories and people are asking you more questions. But in my house, I thought for sure we’d be able to play.”

The TV schedule for this week has ESPN televising the tournament from 2 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. CDT Thursday and Friday and CBS televising the action from 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.