The Masters: LIV rebel Koepka crashes party to join leaders Rahm and Hovland

Greg Norman may have the last laugh. Given the trauma Augusta National caused the Australian during his playing days, it would surely be an almighty roar.

Norman’s position front and centre of LIV’s disruption model means that a description of him as persona non grata at the Masters feels like the understatement of the year. The means for the former world No 1 to get even rather than mad lies in the hands of LIV converts. Enter Brooks Koepka, who made birdies on three of his final four holes to join the day-one leaders party at seven under par.

They would never admit it, but the Green Jackets would shuffle awkwardly if the charge of the LIV brigade results in Masters glory. Others, who have found themselves compelled by golf’s civil war, would inevitably find the scene rather amusing.

Koepka’s credentials will be well known by the rest of the field. This is the 14th time the Floridian has led or co-led at the end of a major round since 2017. He arrived in Georgia with a point to prove: that the leap to LIV has not rendered him a competitive irrelevance.

“Everybody on my team behind the scenes says they can see from the moment we land at a major, I get kind of quiet,” Koepka said. “I’m not talking. I’m very focused, disciplined, driven.

“There’s only really a couple things I care about; going to work out and going to play golf, and that’s it when we’re here. Nothing else really matters. It’s full focus on this and trying to walk out of here with a Green Jacket.”

The whiff of cordite was provided by a rules committee check on allegations that Koepka’s caddie, Ricky Elliott, provided club information to a colleague on the 15th. The beaks quickly cleared Elliott of any wrongdoing. “All involved were adamant that no advice