Golf is in turmoil after one of the sport’s biggest names, Australian world No.2 and reigning British Open champion Cameron Smith has joined the rebel golf circuit LIV Golf.
Confirmation of a long-suspected move came with an official announcement from the Saudi-backed organisation on Tuesday night.
Smith, 29 from Brisbane, is the first current top-10 player to join LIV. He’s had a stellar season winning the Players Championship as well as the Open. He was also tied for third at The Masters, one of three top-5 Masters finishes in the last five years.
Compatriot Marc Leishman has also signed up to the new body, the arrival of which has split golf.
They bring the number of Australians on board with LIV to eight with Marc Jones the next biggest name of the group.
Australian LIV CEO Greg Norman revealed earlier this month the circuit is looking to hold an event Down Under in 2023 and have been scouting potential venues.
Cameron Smith. (Photo by Stuart Franklin/R&A/R&A via Getty Images)
“The biggest thing for me joining is [LIV’s] schedule is really appealing,” Smith told Golf Digest. “I’ll be able to spend more time at home in Australia and maybe have an event down there, as well. I haven’t been able to do that, and to get that part of my life back was really appealing.”
However, he admitted the financial rewards were also tempting – Smith is reported to have received a $US100 million ($A145m) signing-on fee.
“[That] was definitely a factor in making that decision, I won’t ignore that or say that wasn’t a reason,” Smith said. “It was obviously a business decision for one and an offer I couldn’t ignore.”
Smith and Leishman are among six players joining the circuit in time for it’s fourth event, at The International course in Boston, Massachusetts, teeing off on September 2-4.
The other four are Chile’s world No.19 Joaquin Niemann, India’s highest-ranked player Anirban Lahiri, and Americans Harold Varner III and Cameron Tringale.
“LIV Golf is showing the world that our truly global league is attracting the world’s best players and will grow the game into the future for the next generation,” Norman said.
Leishman, 38 from Victoria, has won six PGA Tour events during his career. Now ranked 62nd in the world he has reached No.12 in the past and has twice finished in the top five in both the Open and the Masters.
However, he has missed the cut in seven of his last 15 major appearances.
Both players are still eligible for the Australian PGA and Australian Open but will not be considered for next month’s President’s Cup.
The $A36m Boston event features a 48-man field playing 54 holes. Other Australians in the field besides Smith, Leishman and Jones are current Australian PGA champion Jediah Morgan and Wade Ormsby.
In a move that appeared to be aimed at LIV golfers, Europe doubled the number of wild cards available to their Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald for next year’s event in Rome.
Six of the 12 players will now be at Donald’s discretion with the others being the three leading players on the European Points List, followed by the three leading players on the World Points List.
Several leading figures for European Ryder Cup teams in the past, such as Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood, have defected to LIV. With LIV events not receiving ranking points – an application is pending – they are likely to need a wild card.
As Donald was himself appointed after Henrik Stenson was sacked for joining LIV that seems improbable.
The Oracle
Guest
We all know you'd be the coward on a battlefield. You were too small to handle Aussie rules. You'd just watch a battle from the armchair
Bludger
Guest
Australia, you will find is actually in the higher reaches of weapon's manufacturing globally. That is not necessarily a bad thing in the neighbourhood we find ourselves. In fact, we may look back and wish we were far more prolific manufacturers of armaments.
Michael Butterfield
Roar Rookie
Rory’s gunna hate Smith even more now, he’s gunna say,”I hate Smith, why didn’t he go to LIV before the British Open”.
Cam
Roar Rookie
Maybe, maybe not with the legacy. under 2022’s criteria, an Open Championship win gives Smith a five-year exemption at the Masters, PGA Championship and the US Open, and a 10-year exemption at The Open. Yes they could potentially change that rule and ban Smith from the majors, but I don't think so. I'd almost bet my house that the Open wouldn't break with tradition and ban their current champion.
Simoc
Roar Rookie
So I think this is probably the future of golf depending on what the TV stations want. But with Woods going or gone, this refreshing approach has a lot going for it, apart from the huge money. It's funny how some like to judge Saudi attidudes having already massacred our Aboriginal population out of existence. This is a common theme throughout the World. We know what's best for others. It happens in most every family as well.
JGK
Roar Guru
He's a professional sportsman - there's no shame in taking the money.
TeamAustralia
Roar Rookie
They make them, believe it or not, in places like Benalla and Mulwalla. ALP/LNP idiots love it because it creates jobs in regional areas and makes them look good. Plus imagine the uproar if we had a grenade and rifle factory in Fitzroy. And yes, we sell arms to the Saudis.
Homer Nixon
Guest
Do we sell arms to Saudi Arabia? I wasn't even aware Australia actually had a defence industry of any note or quality that other VASTLY more wealthier nations would wish to buy our materiel? I thought we sell second hand knock offs to countries like Tonga instead.
TeamAustralia
Roar Rookie
Hypocritical how, as a population, we get annoyed about sport lacking morals. Far worse than buying Saudi oil is the Oz government selling arms to Saudi Arabia, which are then used to support the slaughter of kids in Yemen. Yet we remain silent, coz its all about jobs.
Lukestar
Roar Rookie
We can only live in hope.
Homer Nixon
Guest
I'm sure Peter Fitzsimons will burst a vein writing about it today...
The Oracle
Guest
I bet you are as good as golf as you are at AFL: Small, puny and pathetic.
Bludger
Guest
Looking forward to seeing some top class talent playing on our shores at long last. The US PGA was never going to do anything down here, other than the token President's Cup every blue moon or 3.
matth
Roar Guru
Oh I'd take the money, even though the whole LIV/Saudi thing has a bit of a moral stink to it. But no one can really say much about that until they stop using Saudi oil to run their cars.
Homer Nixon
Guest
Unless you are the absolute best, sport forgets you quickly. No one will mention Cameron Smith in 30 years time. Just like how no one recalls Davis Love III with anything more than "of, decent golfer who won a few tournaments". You'd be a dingbat to reject $140m over heavily sanitised legacies in a history book.
Lara
Guest
Easy money n I have more time to do the things I want….I can understand all that. The PGA is a grind, the schedule is punishing n it does take it’s toll…..you can do it for so long. So the PGA will need to adjust, LIV is still a Clayton’s golf for me with issues , so personally it doesn’t interest me.
matth
Roar Guru
Worst kept secret in golf. I'm a little ambivalent about this. As an Australian, I'm not sure Smith owes the PGA tour any particular loyalty, but he risks cutting himself out of creating a legacy in the official histories.
RayinSydney
Roar Rookie
good for him I say, hard to turn that kind of money away.