Australia’s reigning British Open champion Cameron Smith has officially joined PGA Tour’s rival LIV Golf league among a host of other names.
Smith’s name was linked to the rebel league for quite some time but the confirmation of world no. 2’s defection was announced after the completion of the FedEx Cup. He finished 20th in his last appearance at the TOUR Championship and was rewarded with a $640,000 cheque a week after withdrawing from the penultimate playoff event citing hip discomfort.
The 29-year-old is the highest ranked player to jump to the nascent league, joining them after winning the Players Championship along with the British Open this year. The six-time winner on the PGA Tour will make his debut at the September 2nd-4th event being held at The International Golf Club outside Boston.
Along with Cameron Smith, the LIV Golf announced the arrivals of Australian Marc Leishman, Chile’s Joaquin Niemann, India’s Anirban Lahiri and Americans Harold Varner III and Cameron Tringale agreed to join the series.
LIV has been slowly building itself since its inception with many of PGA’s talents jumping ship as legal tussles between the two continue.
Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau have all moved to LIV Golf in search of massive paydays which has resulted in them being banned from the Tour. To combat the threat of more golfers following suit, PGA has revamped itself and increased purses for next year’s event to deter such behaviour.
LIV has held three events already in London, Bedminster and Portland with five more to go this year before the schedule expands next year.
