Time to LIV a little: Cameron Smith takes the money and runs

Cameron Smith has won the Lotto and can keep playing the only tournaments that count.

World No. 2 Cameron Smith of Australia lines up a putt at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia. Picture: Getty Images.

Cameron Smith took a 30-minute phone call from Ernie Els the night he won the British Open. The story goes that Els spent a grand total of one minute congratulating Smith on getting the Claret Jug and then 29 minutes trying to talk him out of joining LIV Golf. To pull Smith’s most famous line from the bag … Els’s attempt was pretty not-that-successful.

As Greg Norman might say, he was a day late and a dollar short. It was evident to anyone who saw and heard Smith’s prickly reaction to the $140m question at St Andrews that the deal was done. Smith and the most famous trophy in the sport were cuddling up a swish Scottish watering hole – the Road Hole Bar at the Old Course Hotel, to be precise – when Els and Presidents Cup captain Trevor Immelman got on the blower. By then, the World No. 2 knew he was off to the rebel league.

As did everyone else. Which was why a heavy hitter like Els was trying to intervene. He had Buckley’s. There’s a bit of Ash Barty in Smith in that he’s always wanted to spend more time at home in Queensland, and while the money dangled by Norman was pretty much too good to refuse, three others factors played huge roles.

He could be in Australia more often – who wouldn’t want to be? – and the schedule was more relaxed. Importantly, as Open champion, he gets an exemption into all the majors for at least the next five years. That’s all that matters. The downside? There was none. All Smith misses out on is PGA Tour events. So what?

His world ranking will disappear in time but the majors exemption makes it a moot point. He’s won Lotto and can keep playing the only tournaments that count. Can probably finally afford a proper haircut. The best of all worlds are his. More time in the lucky country with family and mates. More majors. More loot. And he can do more fishing than Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea. “[Money] was definitely a factor in making that decision,” Smith told Australian Golf Digest. “I won’t ignore that or say that wasn’t a reason. It was obviously a business decision for one and an offer I couldn’t ignore. The biggest thing for me joining is (LIV’s) schedule is really appealing.

“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. I’ve lived over here seven years now, and I love living in the US, but just little things like missing friends’ weddings, birthday parties and seeing your mates having a great time at rugby league games has been tough.”

Smith’s US home is right near the PGA Tour’s headquarters at Sawgrass, Florida. He can basically see head office from his backyard pool. His triumph at the Players Championship in March was popular with the traditional body because he was considered a local and a loyalist. Next year’s Players will start without its defending champion and that’s an embarrassing blow. Smith won $US3.6m but barely raised an eyebrow at his remittance slip. None of these LIV golfers is being rescued from skid row. A year earlier, when he was asked what he might do with a slice of the $US15m on offer at the FedEx Cup, he replied: “I’m pretty set, to be honest. I’m good. I’m good with what I’ve got. I don’t know what I’d do, to be honest. Maybe buy some more fishing equipment.”

If Smith was good with what he’d got back then, he’s good-er now because he’s got a whole lot more. The process of announcing his commitment to LIV Golf has been clumsier than Jean van de Velde’s closing hole at the 1993 British Open, but now it’s finally been done, who’d blame him? I’d go. With bells on.

Watching him raise the Claret Jug at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews was staggering for two reasons. The little bloke had won it and, regardless of what was bubbling away like a witch’s broth in the background, the achievement had to be acknowledged. And yet everyone knew he was on his way to the dark side.

When the perfectly reasonable question was raised at his media conference, he gave a mangled and cranky response, tripping on his words. Which proved he didn’t quite know what to say if he wasn’t just going to tell the truth. He said: “I just won the British Open and you’re asking about that? I think that’s pretty not-that-good.” This weekend’s LIV tournament at Boston’s The International layout will be another 54-hole contest with monster teams and individual pay days. Smith and fellow defector Marc Leishman are likely to form an all-Australian side with Matt Jones and Wade Ormsby. An event here next year is a certainty.

“I’m sure with ‘Leish’ and I playing, it’ll be appealing for LIV,” Smith said of a tournament on home soil. “For me personally, I love team golf, and it’s something I wish I could have more often. I love the four-person teams aspect. Even when you’re out of the (individual) tournament, there’s something else to play for.”

Norman likes his fishing, too. He’s hooked LIV’s most prized possession in time for this weekend’s tournament at Boston. Smith is the Champion Golfer of the Year, as the Open winner is always crowned. He’s the man who stood on golf’s most famous green and lifted the sport’s most iconic trophy as recently as last month. Now LIV Golf has snared 12 of the last 26 major champions and you can see the strategy. Get into every global market. If Australians had little interest in the first three pretty not-that-good LIV events, we have a reason to tune in now that our best player, Smith. is having a hit. Ditto for the vast Latin American audience now that its poster boy, the red-hot Chilean Joaquin Niemann, 23, has booked himself in for Boston and beyond.

Niemann was considered a done deal at St Andrews. Then he got cold feet. He was one of the 23 PGA players who gathered at Delaware a fortnight ago to forge plans to combat LIV. PGA stalwart Rory McIlroy should have looked around the room and quoted another saviour: “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” Twenty-two of those players stayed loyal. Niemann became Judas after LIV Golf upped its offer to $US100m. He’s getting major-champion money without having won a major.

That’s pretty good.