Three months after ‘hell broke loose’, Smith’s golf future is no clearer
Cameron Smith has been forced to prepare for this week’s Open Championship at Royal Birkdale effectively on his Pat Malone. And he might need to get used to it.
While his rivals and a couple of LIV peers were last weekend playing in the Scottish Open, which is quickly becoming mandatory pre-Open preparation, Smith was already at Birkdale.
Cameron Smith has not played a competitive round since missing the cut at the US Open. Getty Images
The former world No.2 would be correct to say playing the course that will host the tournament itself is the best way he can prepare, and it is in a way.
But it’s also his only option.
Smith is not a member of the European PGA Tour and was therefore ineligible to play at the Renaissance Club, or in any other tournament for that matter. He’s obviously not a member of the PGA Tour.
It’s a sad reminder of the choices he made to take the BIG money and run.
What it means is when the almost inevitable happens next season and LIV disappears entirely from the golf landscape, the four majors will be the only tournaments Smith will be eligible to play outside the Australian swing, and solo practice rounds his only way to prepare.
While solo rounds are enough for a player to dial their swing in, the mental toughness that comes from competing week in, week out is impossible to replicate.
In a major, as much as everyone will harp on about it being “just another tournament”, that pressure is dialled up to 11.
For Aussie superstar Smith, that pressure is raised even higher given the five-year major exemption that came with becoming the 2022 Champion Golfer of the Year at St Andrews expires following next year’s tournament.
LIV’s $430m uphill battle
Plenty has been written about Smith’s demise from No.2 in the world, and what could have been if he elected to stay on the PGA Tour.
But as the 2026 major season draws to a close, this might be Smith’s best chance to win another for some time, if at all.
While he will still be allowed to play in the British Open until his 60th birthday, that same courtesy is not afforded to the US Open, Masters or PGA Championship.
In the weeks since the most recent LIV event in Andalucia, chief executive Scott O’Neil has been running around like the proverbial chicken trying to raise a reported $430 million (US$300 million) of investment by September 1.
Golf Digest reported the “LIV 2.0” O’Neil is selling to investors was that players, instead of their monster contracts, would get equity in their teams and brands.
Smith’s golf future is under a cloud. Getty Images
“Most individual commercial rights will be returned to players, giving them greater control over their brands, partnerships, and future earnings potential,” the investment deck reportedly stated.
“LIV 2.0 is centred on player ownership, equity participation and long-term value creation – giving players a direct stake in the league’s success.”
Smith and fellow Aussie star Marc Leishman were given equity and control over Ripper GC when they joined the tour for 2023.
But according to Bloomberg, LIV has been quietly “laying the groundwork” to file for bankruptcy at the end of the season since as early as May.
The breakaway tour is also still facing two massive lawsuits in the UK with potential damages nearing $900 million.
Exactly what the tournaments under a LIV 2.0 would look like, and whether or not the popular Adelaide event returns, remains unknown.
The day ‘all hell broke loose’
News broke of LIV’s potential demise in April mid-way through a pro-Am ahead of the LIV event in Mexico.
Smith’s Ripper GC teammate Lucas Herbert told The Sydney Morning Herald he’d had “plenty of existential crises” since that day when “all hell broke loose”, and had even considered quitting golf altogether.
“I’ve got no tour status (except in Australia). I know how hard that was the first time. Do you still want to do that and is that what you want to do? I thought about it plenty and I don’t have a lot of other qualifications, which doesn’t help my case for any other work,” Herbert said.
“We’ve probably had four months [of it]. You’re pretty much going to bed [wondering] whether I’ll have a job tomorrow. I don’t know if I’ve got a job next week. Whether this house I’m building, the employees I have, can I afford to pay their wages? I don’t know what my life looks like past, well, sometimes a week. At times, it’s been a couple of months. It’s been unnerving.
“That’s the kind of world we’re living in now. There’s not a lot of loyalty in business any more. People are always in it for themselves to get the best deal they can for themselves. It can put a dampener on the way you look at the world at times. Then you see some kids out there and you think, ‘oh the world is fine’.”
Smith is in a similar boat, and perhaps that uncertainly has been a driver in his up-tick in on-course performance. He has also started working with renowned swing coach Claude Harmon III.
Weeks after the LIV event in Mexico, Smith snapped an ugly streak of six-straight missed cuts at majors.
He finished in a tie for seventh at the PGA Championship at Aronimink, just five shots behind winner Aaron Rai, who was three shots clear of the field. It vaulted him from No.239 in the world back up to No.145.
Another top-10 at the most recent LIV event in Adalucia has pushed his ranking back to No.132.
He missed the cut at the US Open at Shinnecock Hills, but the 32-year-old was on the wrong side of the draw. Players on the morning-afternoon side had the worst of the weather in the opening two rounds. Those on the afternoon-morning side made up the bulk of those who made the weekend.
But regardless of how well he’s playing, if LIV collapses, avenues for Smith to play will be few and far between.
Smith has already declined an olive branch to return to the PGA Tour, and the offer has since lapsed.
His best bet for a return to a top-level tour is to win a European PGA Tour event, which would automatically grant him a card.
He could get into an event with a sponsor’s exemption, or he could just win either the Australian Open or Australian PGA Championship later in the year, both of which are co-sanctioned by the European Tour.
Smith with The Claret Jug after winning the 2022 event. Getty
Or, he can go back to the start and either play on the second-tier tours – the Korn Ferry in the US, or the Challenger in Europe.
Smith has previously declared he has no intention to retire, but he has well and truly earned enough coin on LIV to not need to work/play again.
But regardless, Aussie golf fans should make the most of watching the mullet-clad Queenslander while he’s still playing.
The first round of the Open Championship begins on Thursday evening (AEST).