AUGUSTA, Ga. — Top-level officials from virtually every major golf tour are at Augusta National this week for the Masters, attending meetings, dinners and schmoozing their respective players.

There are 18 LIV Golf players in the Masters field this week, including six past Masters champions, and yet Greg Norman, the CEO of LIV Golf and a player who came close to winning a green jacket on several occasions during his playing career, is not.

“We did not extend an invitation to Mr. Norman,” Masters chairman Fred Ridley said Wednesday. “The primary issue and the driver there is that I want the focus this week to be on the Masters competition, on the great players that are participating, the greatest players in the world, which, by our decision in December, we ensured that we were going to honor and be consistent with our invitation criteria.

“I would also add that, in the last 10 years, Greg Norman has only been here twice, and I believe one of those was as a commentator for Sirius Radio. It really was to keep the focus on the competition.”

Norman, of course, has been a polarizing figure as the leader of LIV and was once a driving force in trying to divide the PGA Tour by creating a world tour similar to the model that LIV is attempting to build.

Asked if Norman will ever be welcomed back to Augusta, Ridley said, “I mean, it’s hard to answer that question because, you know, I don’t know where the world is going to be next year or two years from now. But … I would never say never. But I told you why he had not been invited this year.

“I’ve noticed a tone — the tone has been really good here this week,” Ridley went on. “I’ve noticed the players (between LIV and the PGA Tour) are interacting. (Tuesday) night at the Champions Dinner, I would not have known that anything was going on in the world of professional golf other than the norm. So, I think, and I’m hopeful, that this week might get people thinking in a little bit different direction and things will change.”