British Open champion Smith joins LIV Golf

Australia’s Cameron Smith poses with the Claret Jug as he celebrates after winning The Open Championship at the Old Course, St Andrews, Scotland, Britain, on July 17, 2022. (Reuters)

British Open champion Cameron Smith has become the latest leading player to sign up to the breakaway LIV Golf Series which yesterday announced that he was in the field for its next event.The Australian was one of six new recruits for the Saudi-backed tour for the LIV Golf Invitational Boston, from September 2-4.As the world’s number two, the 29-year-old Smith will become the highest-ranked player to compete in a LIV Golf event.Smith was linked repeatedly to LIV Golf shortly after winning the 150th British Open, at St Andrews, last month, but avoided discussion of the subject while playing in this month’s PGA FedEx Cup play-offs.A LIV statement issued yesterday said Smith would be among five other players making their debuts among a field of 98 at the International in Massachusetts including compatriot Marc Leishman, leading Chilean golfer Joaquin Niemann, Harold Varner III (world no 46), Cameron Tringale (55) and India’s top-ranked pro Anirban Lahiri (92).LIV Golf’s record $25mn purses and 54-hole format have attracted several big-name players, including Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Patrick Reed and Dustin Johnson.But its creation has sparked a bitter split with the established US PGA tour and a flurry of lawsuits.Four-time major champion Rory McIlroy, has been one of LIV Golf’s most outspoken critics among players.And the 33-year-old from Northern Ireland rammed home his point on Sunday after winning the $18mn top prize in the season-ending PGA Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta.“It means an awful lot,” McIlroy said. “This is an incredibly proud moment for me but it should also be an incredibly proud moment for the PGA Tour. They have had some hard times this year but we’re getting through it.”LIV players have faced tough questions over Saudi Arabia’s human rights record and have been accused of greed in chasing the huge rewards on offer.The likes of McIlroy have effectively suggested LIV events are not much more than exhibition golf, with no halfway cut and small fields taking part in 54-hole events rather than the traditional 72.But last week PGA commissioner Jay Monahan said tour players had agreed to compete in 20 events next season, included 12 “elevated” stops with $20mn in prize money and minimum season pay amounts for fully exempt players. England’s Lee Westwood, among those who jumped to LIV Golf for its record $25mn purses, told Golf Digest in an interview published on Friday that he sees the PGA as trying to duplicate what LIV Golf has already done.“I laugh at what the PGA Tour players have come up with,” Westwood told the magazine. “It’s just a copy of what LIV is doing. There are a lot of hypocrites out there.“They all say LIV is ‘not competitive.’ They all point at the no-cut aspect of LIV and the short fields. Now, funnily enough, they are proposing 20 events that look a lot like LIV.”Europe doubles number of Ryder Cup captain’s picks to 6Ryder Cup Europe said yesterday they have doubled to six the number of captain’s picks Luke Donald will receive when he assembles the 12-man team that will take on the United States next year in Rome, Italy.The total number of captain’s picks was revealed as part of the 2023 Ryder Cup qualification process that will see three automatic qualifiers from the leading players on the European Points List and then the top three on the world points list.The qualification period for Team Europe will begin at next week’s BMW PGA Championship and end three weeks ahead of the biennial competition being held at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in late September next year.“The six picks give me flexibility to ensure we have the strongest line-up at Marco Simone in terms of in-form players, players with Ryder Cup experience, and potential pairings,” Donald said in a news release.Donald was named as Team Europe’s captain four weeks ago as a replacement for Henrik Stenson, who was stripped of the role in July shortly before he announced that he was joining the LIV Golf Invitational Series.Team Europe, under the guidance of then-captain Padraig Harrington, fell 19-9 to the United States last September in Wisconsin but have not lost a Ryder Cup on home soil since a 15-13 defeat at The Belfry in 1993.