AUGUST, Ga. “Nine months ago, Cameron Smith was at the top of the golf world.
He was probably the most important competitor in the sport.
The 29-year-old Australian was crowned “golf champion of the yr” at the “house of golf” when he won the British Open in July in St. Andrews. This career-pink victory got here lower than 4 months after Smith won the Players’ Championship.
Not only was Smith a champion of The Open and Players, he was also the No. 2 player in the world.
Two months after his Open win, Smith joined LIV Golf for a guaranteed fee that was reportedly over $100 million and really lost ground – as did all LIV players as they were banned by the PGA Tour and ridiculously rejected by the Official World Golf Rankings.
Weeks like Augusta, where the Masters didn’t ban LIV players, and the other three majors, are the only ones when LIV players are in the biggest highlight in the sport.
These are the selections that players like Smith have made, knowing that much of the golf world, starting with the PGA Tour and its powerful lobbying forces (including the OWGR folks), conspired to make them irrelevant.
![Cameron Smith of Australia during a practice round before the 2023 Masters tournament at Augusta National Golf Club.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/NYPICHPDPICT000009179652.jpg?w=1024)
That is why a Smith Masters win (nearly out of the query given his success in Augusta tied for second, tenth and third place in the last three years) or a win by certainly one of the other LIV players this week could be considered an enormous boost for the rival’s tour .
“I’ve made my bed and I’m completely satisfied – very, very completely satisfied – where I’m,” Smith said on Monday. “I’m completely satisfied to sleep in the bed I’m in.”
Smith was a refreshingly lucid interview on Monday on all topics and most notably on LIV.
He held the record after being prevented from defending his Players Championship in March, saying he was “prickly” not to play.
On Monday, he admitted that the courses of LIV Golf usually are not as strong or deep as many courses on the PGA Tour and that he misses playing some events.
He also admitted he was concerned about how he could be received by his former PGA Tour colleagues when he arrived in Augusta. Any fears of freezing were quickly dispelled as he was greeted with open arms, hugs and handshakes from other players.
These LIV players, despite how the PGA Tour would really like you to view them, usually are not criminals.
They could be less essential than they used to be due to the PGA Tour’s ongoing ban and smear campaign, but they usually are not pagans.
For Smith, his prominence didn’t help his faltering form at the start of LIV’s second season, tied for fifth, tied for twenty fourth and tied for twenty sixth last week in Orlando.
When asked about the prospect of being irrelevant in LIV, Smith said: “For me, I’m just trying to play golf the best I can. It’s frustrating after I play like this on any tour. As the LIV Tour grows and the fields get deeper and stronger and all of it unfolds, it’s just going to improve and higher. I can not wait to see the way it develops in person.”
How long LIV has to survive and grow stronger, with tens of millions spent on player guarantees and wallets with little revenue in return, nobody can guess. But a win this week by Smith or certainly one of his fellow LIV players would go a great distance towards improving their prominence.
“It’s just essential for the LIV guys to be there because I believe now we have to be there,” Smith said. “These people don’t play real golf; these guys don’t play on real golf courses.
![Cameron Smith poses for a photo with the British Open trophy and the keys to the city after receiving the keys to the city.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/NYPICHPDPICT000002869972.jpg?w=1024)
“I’m sure I will be the first to say [LIV] the fields usually are not that strong. But we still have numerous guys on the market who can play some really serious golf. It feels good to have this competition and it’s good to see Brooks [Koepka] win [Sunday]. He’s playing really good golf again. Yes, I believe we just need a great, strong finish.
Smith called Augusta a golf course that “may be very convenient for me.”
“I feel like the first time I got here here, I do not think it was a pleasant experience,” he recalls. “I used to be a young child [and] I didn’t really feel like I belonged here. I feel like now that I’m coming in, I’m ready to win this thing.”
If he does, nobody will consider Smith irrelevant, irrespective of what tour he’s on.