Australia’s recently crowned Open champion, Cameron Smith, has reportedly signed a $143 million deal to join Greg Norman’s LIV Golf.
It’s a move that will send shockwaves through the sport, given Smith is the most recent major winner, the world No.2, and also the reigning champion at the Players Championship, the flagship event of the PGA Tour.
The London Telegraph reports Smith will make his LIV Tour debut in Boston next month, although confirmation of his switch isn’t expected until after the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs, which start this week in Memphis.
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Another Australian golfer, Cameron Percy, told RSN radio on Tuesday that Smith and Marc Leishman were “gone”, indicating the pair would both sign with LIV, a comment that left Smith far from impressed.
“You know, my goal here is to win the FedEx Cup playoffs. That’s all I’m here for,” Smith said. “If there’s something I need to say regarding the PGA Tour or LIV, it’ll come from Cameron Smith, not Cameron Percy.
“I’m a man of my word and whenever you guys need to know anything, it’ll be said by me.”
Pressed further on the subject of LIV Golf, Smith added: “I have no comment to that. Like I said, I’m here to play the FedEx Cup playoffs. That’s been my focus the last week and a half.
“Like I said, it’ll come from me, it won’t come from Cameron Percy.”
Asked if he intended to play the Presidents Cup in late-September, Smith’s reply was emphatic.
“Absolutely,” he said.
“That’s something we’ve been looking forward to for the last three years. That’s something I look forward to being a part of.”
If Smith did play a LIV Golf event in early September, he would be banned from the Presidents Cup, meaning his comment that he intended to represent the International team in North Carolina effectively represents a denial of the London Telegraph report.
Smith then reportedly walked out of the media conference when asked another question about LIV.
Smith would be the highest-ranked player to join LIV Golf, which has already signed Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Sergio Garcia.
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