The ongoing battle between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf Series reportedly will see the No. 2-ranked golfer in the world switch sides.
Australian golfer Cameron Smith, fresh off a win at the 2022 Open Championship at St Andrews, will play out the remainder of this year’s PGA Tour events before opting to accept an offer for $100 million to join LIV.
That’s at least according to fellow Australian and PGA Tour member Cameron Percy.
“Unfortunate, yeah, they’re gone,” Percy told RSN radio in Australia on Tuesday.
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Smith has not made any official commitment to LIV and said after his win at St Andrews in July that his only worry in 2022 was “to win golf tournaments.”
“I just won the British Open, and you’re asking about that?” he told reporters after the 2022 Open Championship when asked about his rumored connection to the LIV tour.
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Smith's decision would mark the highest-ranked player to defect to the new golf tour, which is set to host three more tournaments in the United States in 2022.
Boston and Chicago are set to host LIV events in September, while Miami is the home of the tour’s championship tournament at the end of October.
Meanwhile, the PGA’s FedEx St. Jude Invitational is set to kick off the tour’s postseason in Memphis on Thursday.
Across the country, a California court is set to decide whether three LIV golfers should be able to play in this month’s PGA events after defecting to the rogue league.
Those golfers are Americans Talor Gooch and Hudson Swafford, as well as Australian Matt Jones.
In his interview Tuesday, Piercy said Smith wasn’t the only Australian jumping ship. He finger-pointed fellow Aussie Marc Leishman as another PGA tour player who was planning to sign with LIV Golf.
Leishman is currently the No. 56 ranked player in the world.
Other notable names that the LIV has poached from the PGA Tour include Americans Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Bubba Watson, and Bryson DeChambeau.
Internationally, Sergio Garcia and Henrik Stenson have also defected from PGA to play for the LIV series.
