Cameron Smith has some thinking to do about his future.
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The golf world was sent into a spin on Tuesday morning AEDT as in order to welcome Brooks Koepka back into the fold, the PGA Tour offered Smith an ultimatum – he has until February 2 to apply for reinstatement.
The same olive branch has been extended to fellow LIV Golf stars Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm, and a fascinating few weeks await the men’s professional game with the possibility of any of that trio deciding to join Koepka in jumping back over the fence.
The PGA Tour made a powerful statement in announcing the criteria for the new ‘Returning Players Program’.
What they decided upon was that any player who has won a major or The Players Championship since 2022 is eligible to come back to the PGA Tour from LIV Golf.
That left just Smith, Koepka, DeChambeau and Rahm. The big names with plenty of golf ahead of them that they really want back. Golf writer Ryan Lavner described it as a “masterstroke” on the Golf Channel podcast after veteran golf writer Rex Hoggard said it was a “savvy” and “elegant” play by the PGA Tour.
The cut off coincides with the formation of LIV that split the men’s professional golf and sparked a spat that has gradually cooled into what is now its fifth year, but they did not have to choose that date.
They could have extended it to all major winners to include the likes of Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed and Dustin Johnson.
They also could have made the cut off more recent with Koepka winning the PGA Championship in 2023, Rahm earning a green jacket earlier that year and DeChambeau claiming the US Open in 2024, but a conscious decision was made to include Smith.
Adding The Players Championship was undoubtedly done in an attempt to further elevate the status of the PGA Tour’s own event, but doing so also makes it clear that Smith is wanted a man.
That may have seemed like a strange notion for much of last year as the 32-year-old Australian missed the cut in all four majors and left heads scratching over a startling decline in form.
Perhaps the PGA Tour hierarchy have seen the recent power and momentum of Australian golf and know the value Smith can add.
While Rory McIlroy was the main attraction of the week, Sunday at last month’s Australian Open was all about Smith’s push for a maiden national crown.
More than 30,000 fans lined the fairways at Royal Melbourne to watch their national icon battle it out with eventual champion Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen of Denmark down the stretch.
A similar flood of spectators sporting temporary, or sometimes real, mullets and custom T-shirts have been a staple of the Australian PGA Championship in Smith’s hometown of Brisbane as well as at LIV Adelaide, which has been clearly the most successful event on the breakaway league’s schedule.
The love for Smith is evident, and when he was at his peak in 2022 before crossing to LIV for a reported fee of US$140 million (A$210m), his popularity abroad hit fever pitch.
The PGA Tour’s top dogs clearly know the impact a loveable Australian can have, and they have seen it with the incredible rise of Min Woo Lee’s social media presence and resulting cult following.
Or maybe fellow Australian Adam Scott, who along with Tiger Woods is one of the player directors signing off on initiatives like the ‘Returning Players Program’, simply wanted to make sure the carrot is dangled in front of his fellow Queenslander.
As it stands, Smith is arguably the least likely of DeChambeau and Rahm to jump ship – even though Spanish outlet TenGolf have reported that the latter has no interest in rejoining the PGA Tour right now.
“The tour believes Rahm has long regretted jumping to LIV, and some think he only left as he was expecting the PIF to finalise a deal with the tour imminently,” Golf Digest’s Joel Beall wrote.
“More pressing: his Ryder Cup eligibility is now uncertain, perhaps pressing him back to the tour.
“DeChambeau is the wildcard. Whispers suggest he wants out when his LIV contract expires this year.
“His asking price is steep, and he’s demanding more control over LIV’s direction. Tour officials recognise their exemption could serve as leverage in his negotiations.
“Still, it’s a chance to reclaim LIV’s two best players and block them from landing elsewhere, like the DP World Tour.”
Smith, meanwhile, is firmly entrenched in the LIV camp as captain of Ripper GC, who won the team title in 2024.
According to a report from The Times, he has been involved in trying to recruit rising star Elvis Smylie to replace veteran Matt Jones on his all-Australian team.
With his Rippers, Smith is also at the forefront of a partnership with Golf Australia’s junior participation program My Golf.
Plus, he loves the chance to spend more time in Australia or at home in Florida with his wife and child, or fishing on his boat, which is afforded by the shorter LIV schedule.
“I feel like my job as a professional golfer is to grow the game and that is something that I’ve always been passionate about. I don’t see myself as a disrupter,” Smith said at LIV Adelaide last year.
“I feel like I made a choice because I thought it was right; because I thought it was what golf needed, particularly in Australia. As you said, the last few years here have been massive, not only for LIV and the sport in Australia, but golf in general. It’s been awesome to be a part of.”
Regardless of his past comments, the PGA Tour’s announcement offers food for thought, especially as Smith tries to find answers to diminishing returns at the majors.
“If the floodgates open – which I’m pretty sure is Brian Rolapp’s plan here – and create a scenario not just with the policy identifying your four most important players, but do it in such a small window and make Feb 2 the deadline … it’s a very savvy move,” Hoggard said on the Golf Channel podcast.
“Because even if you’re Cam Smith, who by all accounts would rather fish right now than play golf, you’d have to think to yourself ‘man, maybe I want to take that up. Maybe that’s something I want to look into’.
“It opens up a very tense two weeks for those on LIV right now.”
The other carrot that a possible return dangles in front of Smith is another shot at the Presidents Cup.
Ahead of the Australian Open at Royal Melbourne, Smith spoke fondly of his 2019 debut in the event at the same venue where he enhanced his budding reputation by defeating Justin Thomas in Sunday singles.
With fellow Australian Geoff Ogilvy taking on the International Team captaincy at Medinah in September, and the event returning to Australia at Kingston Heath in 2028, it could be enticing.
“The Presidents Cup thing is interesting. If you’re Geoff Ogilvy, how much pressure are you putting on a Cameron Smith to ask, ‘maybe you should consider this? Certainly we could use you later in the year’,” Hoggard said.
“It’s a very small piece of the puzzle but I think everything here was thought out really well.”
Smith has always been one motivated by the chance to represent something bigger than himself.
It has been part of the attraction of LIV, but a return to the PGA Tour could also open the Olympic door.
He relished the chance to don the green and gold in Tokyo in 2021, even famously shaving ‘AUS’ into the side of his head.
The absence of world ranking points from LIV events meant he was unable to contend for a spot on the Australian team in Paris – with Min Woo Lee and Jason Day making their Olympic debuts instead.
Smith would undeniably love the chance to feature in a hometown Olympic Games in Brisbane in 2032 just shy of his 39th birthday.
He has been a member of host course Royal Queensland since he was talented youngster and he also won the Australian PGA there in 2022.
After finishing one shot out of the bronze medal playoff in Tokyo, a shot at an Olympic medal at home would surely be too good to pass up.
PGA Tour CEO Rolapp, a former NFL executive, is teasing Smith, DeChambeau and Rahm with such opportunities to build upon their legacies that even the most ardent LIV supporter would admit does not come from the breakaway league’s now 72-hole tournaments across the globe.
As claimed by Laver on the Golf Channel podcast, the decision for the trio is now between global reputation or money.
“Apart from Bryson, who is a historic and transformative figure unto himself, none of those players are more popular right now than when they were on the PGA Tour. I think that’s indisputable,” he said.
“So they have to make the calculus on their own about what does that reputation hit cost?
“Maybe they can’t get out of their LIV deals and it’s a moot point, however, at least in the court of public opinion, this is what Rolapp is telling these guys: ‘Here’s a mulligan, here’s an off-ramp, you have to decide whether you made a mistake and actually care about your competitive legacy, or are you signalling to golf fans that ‘what I really care about is money. Lots and lots of money. Money you can’t even know’.
“To me that’s a masterstroke because it really puts these guys in a vice in determining how they will be perceived … I think it’s a real subliminal message Rolapp is trying to send here.”
DeChambeau’s decision is set to be the most fascinating of the trio.
He is out of contract with LIV Golf at the end of this year, and is yet to sign an extension – Koepka was in the same position before getting out of his deal.
DeChambeau is arguably the face of the league courtesy of the explosion of his popularity on YouTube.
Being free to create content like his ‘Break 50’ series on the video platform was one of the key incentives for DeChambeau to leave the PGA Tour, but the opportunity to be competing against the likes of Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy week-in, week-out again helped fuel speculation of the two-time major winner leaving LIV Golf throughout last year.
Although, he tried to shut down the rumours at LIV’s Hong Kong event.
“No, I’m very excited about the future of LIV Golf,” DeChambeau replied when asked about potentially returning to the PGA Tour.
“I’m very excited to be the captain of the Crushers and continue our legacy that we’re starting to create. That’s my goal is to create this lasting legacy where we impact millions and millions of golfers’ lives around the world.
“That should tell you everything you should know. I continue to see LIV Golf growing. It’s going to grow at an exponentiating pace for years to come, and we aren’t going anywhere.”
DeChambeau’s circumstances have now changed, however, with him gaining immense leverage in negotiations with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund over a new deal following the departure of his former sparring partner.
Long-time golf writer Alan Shipnuck posted on X in reference to Governor of the PIF Yasir Al-Rumayyan: “Yasir is about to add an extra zero to the Bryson offer”.
Fellow prominent golf writer Dan Rappaport also took to X to say: “If I’m Bryson DeChambeau, I’m going into that LIV contract negotiation asking, with a straight face, for 500 million U.S. dollars (A$745m). If he leaves, it’s over. Leverage on leverage on leverage.”
To be a fly on the wall in that negotiation, and to have a penny for Smith’s thoughts as golf’s bitter feud enters what is set to be a drama-filled three weeks that will shape the future of the men’s professional game.
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