A player meeting in Connecticut this week could deliver news players are waiting to hear on what the future looks like for LIV Golf and the PGA Tour, including a potential path back for defectors like Cameron Smith.
Two weeks after the shock announcement that the PGA Tour had linked with the Saudi Arabian government’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), which blindsided players, the tour’s Player Advisory Council is set to meet ahead of this week’s Travellers Championship.
Australian veteran Adam Scott is chairman of the council and while there are significant questions about what the merger means for the future of golf, Masters champion and world No.2 Jon Rahm, who lashed PGA Tour officials for not consulting players, wasn’t sure what answers he would get to the lingering questions.
“I don’t think we’re going to get a lot of answers, but I’m going to at least get an idea of where the membership head is at,” he said.
“That’s all I can say. We don’t know anything. I don’t know if the people in charge know much more than we do.
“There are so many unanswered questions that at this point I wouldn’t want to waste time thinking about it because there is a lot of what-ifs and unknowns”.
Rahm has been the centre of significant rumours about a potential move to LIV given his disappointment at the PGA Tour backflip, but the agreement bans LIV actively recruiting any more players.
A passage back to the PGA Tour for LIV players, like Smith, is also yet to be determined and the Australian is headed to Europe for an event in Spain before he defends his British Open title at Royal Liverpool in July.
Despite moving to LIV, Smith’s standing in the game has remained strong and after finishing fourth at the US Open last week, the Queensland has not only held his place in the top 10 on the world rankings, he’s improved it.
While many of his star LIV compatriots have dropped outside the top 50 – Dustin Johnson is 70 after being as low as 90 – Smith jumped from ninth to seventh this week, continuing his near 18-month stay inside the top 10 having been as high as No.2.
He’s only played in six events for world ranking points since his move to LIV for a reported $140m, including a victory at the Australian PGA last December and two top-10 major finishes.
After his big finish at the US Open in Los Angeles, Smith, who has lapped up the extra breaks he gets playing on the LIV tour, said he would “lay low” for a few weeks before amping up his British Open preparation.
“We have a week off now before we get to Spain, so I’ll probably just hang out, really not do much practice,” he said.
“It‘s going to be kind of a busy part of the year here for us the next kind of seven or eight weeks. Just lay low and get to Spain and just focus on that driver again.
“I think for me, that’s the difference to winning the golf tournaments and not winning … just keep that driver on a string.”
