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LONDON. — It was expected but Cameron Smith’s departure to LIV Golf remains a sickening blow to the PGA Tour and those seeking to preserve the sport’s status quo.
The Australian’s defection is the most significant since Dustin Johnson’s springtime change of heart.
Having pledged his future to the established circuit, the American was swayed by LIV’s millions in time for their opening event in June.
This prompted the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed to also abandon the preeminent tour in men’s golf.
But Johnson is 38 and has not won since collecting his second major at the 2020 Masters. DeChambeau and Koepka have been beset by debilitating injuries and Reed’s form and popularity are in decline.
European recruits such as Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Sergio Garcia are well past their prime. Paul Casey, in his mid-40s with a dodgy back, decided to cash in while he could.
Smith is different. The Australian is 29 and number two in the world. He is at the height of his powers.
The Queenslander is popular with fans; a modest, down-to-earth figure with endearing larrikin qualities and a game of a quality that is only very sparingly conferred by golfing gods.
How the PGA Tour would have loved to have celebrate fully its newly incentivised calendar at its opening event next year. But it cannot.
It will be a Tournament of Champions without its defending champion, even though the Hawaii event is now worth US$15m (£12.9m). Smith, who shot a record-breaking 34-under-par to take that title this year, will instead be living the LIV life.
And that is likely to be one that makes it easier for him to spend that time of the year playing or relaxing in his native Australia.
His absence will also be keenly felt at the Players Championship in March. The tour’s flagship event will be worth US$25m but will also be without its defending champion.
Likewise the now US$20m Genesis Invitational a month earlier. Joaquin Niemann will be absent from defending the title he so thrillingly won earlier this year.
The 23-year-old from Chile is one of the game’s most exciting talents and another significant LIV coup. Ranked 19 in the world, he is also a client of the GSE Worldwide management company that has specialised in carving out lucrative Saudi-funded contracts for a number of their clients.
They include DeChambeau, Abraham Ancer, Casey, Jason Kokrak, Garcia, Branden Grace, Louis Oosthuizen and Carlos Ortiz who are all in the field for LIV’s fourth US$25m event, which starts in Boston tomorrow.
There is no doubting LIV has gathered momentum from a stuttering start. They have resources from the deepest pockets — Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth Public Investment Fund. They can be a lucrative force in golf for as long as they want.
Even so, the announcement of their latest recruits is not as star laden as LIV would have desired. The absence of Open runner-up Cameron Young and 2021 Masters winner Hideki Matsuyama should encourage the PGA Tour.
American Young was attracted by LIV’s 54-hole shotgun start formats and their bloated prize funds. But he was swayed in the recent meeting of top players instigated by Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods.
“I was very interested,” Young admitted. “I think they have a bunch of good ideas. I think they’re doing some cool stuff.” But the 25-year-old proved an impressionable listener at that vital Delaware meeting earlier this month. — BBC Sport
Online Reporter