As the golf world continues to reel from the news that the Saudi-backed LIV Golf will merge with the PGA Tour and the DP World tour, Australia’s Cameron Smith now has everything he could possibly desire: the money, more money to play for and his tournament of choice to play in.
With Yasir al-Rumuyyan at the helm of a new world golf entity, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) take-over will have an immense impact on Australian golf and its most well known figures.
The likes of Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Will Zalatoris and Jon Rahm all rejected big-money offers to join LIV only for the PGA Tour reach an agreement where they now answer to the PIF. But Smith is surely delighted to hear LIV golfers will soon be welcomed back into PGA Tour fold. He defected to LIV for a reported $140m a month after lifting the claret jug at the Old Course. Although Smith has been able to maintain an OWGR Top 10 spot and receive exemptions into majors thanks to his Open win, the merge of tours will allow him to compete in the new elevated PGA Tour events as well as international team events. He can certainly better stabilise his position in the world rankings.
Smith played in just 12 LIV events, winning the 2022 Chicago event and helping Punch GC to second place in Miami that year.
His Australian Ripper GC teammates will also benefit. Marc Leishman, 39, still has plenty of good golf left but has fallen from No 36 in the world at the end of 2021 to No 147, effectively ending his major career. An ability to earn ranking points puts him back on the major scene. Matt Jones is down to No 185 but did win the Honda Classic in 2021 and will benefit from being able to play PGA Tour events. Jed Morgan primarily plied his trade on the Asian Tour prior to joining LIV.
The future of Ripper GC – and all the LIV franchises that were proudly promoted as a differentiator from the PGA Tour – remains notably more clouded. No announcement has been made regarding the LIV schedule including how a team competition would exist in golf’s new world order.
Australian golf fans will be watching with great interest to see how the schedules come together. For the first time this century, outside hosting the Presidents Cup, Australian fans welcomed top-tier stars competing in a single tournament with the LIV Adelaide event. It was arguably the most successful of any LIV event, drawing large, raucous crowds while being described as a “benchmark event” by officials. Such was the success that LIV was reportedly considering expanding its Australian offering in 2024. South Australia already have a three-year deal with LIV but what that means in terms of future event status, structure and field quality is an open question.
The PGA of Australia was circumspect about the merger, saying “we have and will continue to act in a deliberate, strategic and consistent manner which is to be committed to work within golf’s global ecosystem.”
Given LIV’s commissioner, Greg Norman, was sidelined from negotiations with the PGA Tour, his future in professional golf leadership is at best in doubt. Norman led the crusade against the PGA Tour and was seen as a significant block to any negotiations so it would be surprising if he was to continue on in his leadership role.
While Norman was reportedly well compensated for his role leading LIV, his reputation and relationships in golf took significant blows. He said in a tweet that today was “a great day in global golf … the journey continues”, but after being left out of such a momentous decision his time as a powerbroker is surely coming to an end.
The return of so many stars to the PGA Tour will, without question, have a flow-on effect. Veterans such as Jason Day and Adam Scott have likely benefited from this disruption with higher purses to play for, while Cameron Davis and Lucas Herbert are now entrenched on the PGA Tour and inside the Top 60 in the world. But for the likes of Cameron Percy, Greg Chalmers and Aaron Baddeley, though, their opportunities to play on the PGA Tour will probably diminish significantly, if not evaporate all together.
The impact of this monumental shift has hardly begun to play out and the effects will be long lasting. There will be winners. There will be losers. Australian golf, like most other stakeholders, will just have to wait and see how it fits into top-tier golf and who will be part of it.
