Cam Smith is searching for his first LIV win in just his second start.
Cameron Smith made his LIV Golf debut in Boston a few weeks ago, eventually tying for fourth. He’s 18 holes away from winning his first event on the Saudi-backed circuit just outside of Chicago at Rich Harvest Farms.
The Australian’s lone bogey of the day came at the par-5 11th but five birdies scattered throughout the rest of his card had him signing for a second-round 4-under 68 after opening the event with a 66. He’s 10 under and leads by two.
Smith’s last worldwide win came at the 150th Open Championship.
Three shots behind him is Dustin Johnson, who stumbled to a 2-over 74 after firing a first-round 9-under 63 Friday. A bogey at No. 3 and a double at No. 4 put him behind the eight ball and he didn’t do enough down the stretch to make up for the lost strokes.
If Johnson comes from behind Sunday to win, he’ll be the first multiple-time winner on the LIV Golf Series.
Peter Uihlein is tied with Johnson at 7 under, while Laurie Canter and Charl Schwartzel are tied for fourth at 6 under.
If you’re attending the event in the Windy City on Sunday and want to give back, LIV is donating $1000 to charity for every fan who receives Smith’s mullet haircut.
LIV Golf’s event in Chicago is donating $1000 to charity for anyone who gets a free Cameron Smith-mullet haircut.
LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman indicated negotiations are ongoing with multiple networks for a TV deal.
The LIV Golf Invitational Series is holding the fifth event in its inaugural season Friday through Sunday outside Chicago but as with the first four, the only live viewing option for fans is online streaming.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund backed the Greg Norman led breakaway golf circuit, which still has no major North American TV deal.
During a radio interview with ESPN 1000 in Chicago this week, Norman said that might change soon.
“All I can tell you is that the interest coming across our plate right now is enormous,” he said without naming names but indicating there were active negotiations ongoing.
CBS, NBC and ESPN are all in the early stages of long-term media rights deals with the PGA Tour and are unlikely broadcast or streaming partners with LIV Golf for that reason. Fox does not televise live golf but the last time it had a deal with the U.S. Golf Association, it bailed on the contract before it was completed.
Front Office Sports reports that there may be as many as six outlets bidding on the U.S. media rights, and that the leading contender is Fox.
In the streaming arena, Amazon, which is starting its first season as the exclusive rights-holder for the NFL Thursday Night Football package, isn’t interested in LIV Golf, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Apple, which has dabbled in live sports streaming with Major League Baseball, is not interested in LIV, also according to WSJ.
LIV Golf is free to watch online, unlike most other sports events on streaming services, which are subscription based.
Bloomberg spoke with Will Staeger, LIV Golf’s chief media officer. He said the circuit is in the “early stages” of trying to ink its first U.S. TV deal. He also said that wouldn’t start until the 2023 season, which will feature 14 events up from the eight that are being played in 2022.
“It is sad that those governing bodies have not allowed us to be able to qualify. That’s all I can say to that.”
Bryson DeChambeau is focused on LIV Golf’s fifth event this week near Chicago, but with the 2022 Presidents Cup just a week away, the three-time member of Team USA as a professional said it’s sad he and his fellow LIV players will be stuck watching from home.
“I personally think that the team events are only hurting themselves by not allowing us to play, not allowing us to qualify through some capacity, in some facet,” DeChambeau said during his pre-tournament press conference Thursday at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois.
“But I would say from a team aspect, it is sad that those governing bodies have not allowed us to be able to qualify. That’s all I can say to that,” DeChambeau said before continuing. “I want to play in numerous events on the PGA Tour. It would be awesome. That’s what LIV Golf has tried to, they have allowed us to play on the PGA Tour. It’s the PGA Tour barring us from doing so.”
The PGA Tour has suspended players who have competed in LIV Golf events, following its own Tournament Regulations dating back to the first round of suspensions after the start of LIV’s first event in London. Despite the sour thoughts, DeChambeau will “absolutely” be watching the action at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, next week as the Internationals look to win on American soil for the first time in the event’s 28-year history.
“Look, I’m a golf fan, first and foremost. I’m going to watch golf wherever it’s played with some of the best players in the world, whoever it is,” explained DeChambeau. “I think down the road that’ll change. I think that this will become something special, even more special than what it is now, and moving forward in the future, I’ll still watch other tournaments that I’ve won and done well at before.”
DeChambeau was a member of Team USA at both the 2018 Ryder Cup in Paris and 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits and holds a 2-3-1 record. He made his Presidents Cup debut for the red, white and blue in 2019 at Royal Melbourne, where he compiled an 0-1-1 record.
“LIV was very supportive, and they gave me two exemptions as an amateur, which I really appreciated them a lot.”
David Puig will make his professional debut at this week’s LIV Golf Invitational Series stop outside Chicago, but the former standout from Arizona State is no rookie on the upstart circuit.
The 20-year-old Spaniard played in two previous events for the Greg Norman-led and Saudi Arabia-backed series as an amateur this summer, finishing T-41 at LIV’s debut in London and T-42 at LIV Golf Bedminster. Puig said his reason for leaving college early (and after the start of the fall season) was because LIV provided him playing opportunities.
“LIV was very supportive, and they gave me two exemptions as an amateur, which I really appreciated them a lot,” explained Puig. “They also gave me an opportunity to play against the best players in the world, so it was obviously a tough decision to leave ASU, but it was a pretty easy decision to join LIV.”
When Puig was later asked if he had looked into PGA Tour exemptions while at Arizona State and if he had written to the Phoenix Open or other events, his response was, “Not really.”
“At least for what I know, getting into the Phoenix Open is pretty tough, especially when a guy is from Spain. I would say, I don’t know, Preston, one of my teammates, he had the chance to play in the Phoenix Open, and he deserves it. He’s an awesome guy, awesome player, but I think when he was 10 years old he was already a member at TPC Scottsdale or helped with the tournament somehow or something like that,” Puig said referencing the Arizona State’s Preston Summerhays, who received an exemption to the 2022 WM Phoenix Open. Other recent college players to earn exemptions as amateurs include Matthew Wolff, an All-American at Oklahoma State, in 2019 and Jon Rahm, also a Sun Devil who hails from Spain, in 2015.
“Yeah, and then on the other tournaments, being from Spain, I would say it’s just pretty tough because I would say they’d rather give the exemptions to people that are local.”
Quite a bit of speculation for someone who admittedly didn’t really make an effort.
Puig was not selected for Arizona State’s first event of the fall season, a second-place showing at the Maui Jim Intercollegiate down the road from campus at Mirabel Golf Club in Scottsdale. This summer during his time with LIV Golf he played for Cleeks GC in Bedminster and Fireballs GC in London. This week he’ll tee it up for newly-announced Joaquin Niemann’s Torque GC.
“I’m not nervous. You know, at the end when you play golf, it’s pretty much every time the same. You’ve just got to hit a golf ball and just try to make as less shots possible,” Puig said. “Obviously first tournament as a pro, I’ve got some expectations that I want to do or get, like I don’t know, play a round under par, which I still never did in LIV, or had a chance to win or help my team to win, too.
“But I’m not nervous. It’s just what I do every day. I mean, I’ve practiced for this, to try to be one of the best players in the world. Yeah, I’m not nervous, I’m just excited to start going.”
There’s something inherently special about a national open, but it comes as no surprise that the attention this week at the 2022 Italian Open is more so focused on the future.
Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome plays host both to this week’s DP World Tour stop, as well as the 2023 Ryder Cup, September 29-October 1. A handful of hopefuls for Luke Donald’s European squad are in the field, including 2022 FedEx Cup champion Rory McIlroy, 2022 U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick, Viktor Hovland, Tyrrell Hatton, and local favorite and 2018 Italian Open winner Francesco Molinari.
Unlike at last week’s BMW PGA Championship, there’s a small presence of LIV Golf players in the field this week as most are competing at the series’ fifth event near Chicago, but that certainly didn’t keep McIlroy from fielding yet another question about the upstart circuit led by Greg Norman and backed by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.
“I have said it once I’ve said it a hundred times, I don’t think any of those guys should be on the Ryder Cup team,” McIlroy definitively said during a Wednesday press conference.
Donald is joined in the field by vice captains Thomas Bjorn and Edoardo Molinari, who will undoubtedly be scouting out players for their six selections for the 12-man team that will challenge the United States in a years time. McIlroy even let slip that he, Donald and a few others would meet for dinner Wednesday evening for some team bonding and discussion on how the course could favor the Europeans.
“I think the European Team has a core of six or seven guys that I think we all know are pretty much going to be on that team, and then it’s up to some of the younger guys to maybe step up,” McIlroy said.
“But I think we were in need of a rebuild, anyway. It was sort of, we did well with the same guys for a very long time but again as I just said, everything comes to an end at some point. I think Whistling Straits is a good sort of demarcation, I guess.
“That’s all behind us. We have got a core group of guys but let’s build on that again, and instead of filling those three or four spots with older veterans, let’s blood some rookies and let’s get them in and build towards the future. I think that’s important.”
The United States rolled to victory at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, 19-9, back in 2021, defeating a European side that featured the likes of Bernd Wiesberger, Paul Casey, Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter, all of whom have gone to LIV Golf (Garcia and Poulter were captain’s picks).
Team Europe player Jon Rahm (left) hits his tee shot in front of player Rory McIlroy (right) on the fifth hole during a practice round for the 43rd Ryder Cup golf competition at Whistling Straits. (Photo: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports)
Using the 2021 side to speculate, one can assume the six or seven core players McIlroy referenced are himself, Jon Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood, Hatton, Hovland, Fitzpatrick and Shane Lowry. As for the rookies, the trio of captains will likely have their eyes on the Hojgaard brothers, Nicolai and Rasmus, who are both in this week’s field.
“I think anyone playing well this week will obviously be seen under a different light in a year’s time,” Edoardo Molinari explained. “Obviously still a very long way to go. Everyone will have to play very well to make the team or get a pick.”
“I think it’s very important, at least to have a good first look,” he said of McIlroy and Fitzpatrick playing this week. “I mean, as I said, we are going to make a few little changes but the bulk of the course will be the same, and even just for us to get their opinion on how the course is playing and what they would like to see and what they like to see on a golf course, how they play better in certain conditions or others, I think it’s just a benefit for everyone, and obviously it’s much appreciated that those guys were able to come here and play this event ahead of the Ryder Cup. Hats off to them.”
The report was also critical of various Tour expenditures, including compensation for retired executives.
Traveling via a private jet is a luxury for most. For PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, it’s a requirement.
A Wall Street Journal report has detailed Monahan’s use of a PGA Tour-owned jet for both personal and business trips, citing flight records, a commercial jet-tracking service and various sources. As part of the report, the Tour told the Journal that Monahan, “is required by its Policy Board, which includes players, to use the corporate plane for all air travel—business and personal—because it provides the ‘necessary level of efficiency, privacy, and security.’”
Flight records largely showed the plane was used for business travel to airports near Tour events, but also showed trips to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, Missoula, Montana, Nantucket, Massachusetts, and Turks and Caicos.
The professional golf discourse over the last year has been dominated by money since LIV Golf joined the fray. Supported by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and widely criticized as an effort to sportswash the Kingdom’s human rights record, LIV Golf offers massive purses and multi-million dollar contracts and has plucked away some of the Tour’s best players, such as Cam Smith, Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson.
While referencing its financial battle with LIV, the jet travel was one of multiple points of contention the Journal raised in regards to the Tour’s expenditures:
The PGA Tour’s new $81 million headquarters
Monahan’s 2020 earnings, which totaled $14.2 million
Retired executives were paid $8 million in severance and $32 million in other compensation from 2017 to 2020, with more than half going to former commissioner Tim Finchem
The Journal also mentioned the Tour’s recently announced changes that will see more of the top players at the same tournaments, 12 elevated events featuring an average of $20 million purses and an increase to $100 million for the Player Impact Program. The Tour also provided the Journal with a document that projected 55 percent of its $1.52 billion in projected revenue would go to its players.
Dustin Johnson earned nearly $5 million on Sunday.
He made an eagle putt on the first playoff hole to beat Anirban Lahiri and Joaquin Niemann and win the LIV Golf Invitational Boston event at The International in Bolton, Massachusetts. He earned $4 million for the individual victory, and his 4 Aces won the team title, too, netting Johnson an additional $750,000.
Sihwan Kim, who shot 87 in the first round, 63 in the second and finished with a 76 on Sunday for a 16 over total, earned $120,000.
Cameron Smith, the world No. 2, earned just over $1 million after finishing a shot outside of the playoff at 14 under in his first LIV event. It was the first playoff of the four LIV Golf events thus far. Four more are scheduled this year, with the next coming at Rich Harvest Farms in Chicago in two weeks.
Check out the full prize money payouts for each player in Bolton, Massachusetts, outside of Boston.
It’s been more than a month since we last saw LIV golfers on the course.
It’s been more than a month since we last saw LIV Golf Series players on the course but that’s how it’s going in this breakaway league, which has only eight events in 2022.
Ahead of the fourth event during this inaugural season, LIV introduced its six newest members Wednesday in Bolton, Massachusetts, outside Boston.
The International is the host venue for the three-day, 54-hole, no-cut event that starts Friday.
Cam Smith, Champion Golfer of the Year and Players Championship winner, makes his circuit debut. He’s ranked No. 2 in the Official World Golf Ranking and is now the highest ranked member of the Saudi government-backed golf series.
Two-time Masters champ Bubba Watson is also making his first appearance but he won’t be playing just yet. Still recovering from knee surgery, Watson is LIV Golf’s first non-playing captain.
There are 12 teams of four golfers, and Watson’s squad includes fellow newcomer Harold Varner III.
Other recent signees include Anirban Lahiri, Cameron Tringale and Marc Leishman.
His statement announcing and explaining his decision was just as well, but in a different way. Varner has always been unapologetically himself, a fact that’s led the 32-year-old to be a fan-favorite over the last few years on Tour. The shocking aspect of his statement was how refreshingly honest he was about his reasons for joining LIV, and he didn’t shy away from speaking about the money.
“The opportunity to join LIV Golf is simply too good of a financial breakthrough for me to pass by. I know what it means to grow up without much. This money is going to ensure that my kid and future Varners will have a solid base to start on – and a life I could have only dreamt about growing up,” Varner wrote in a post on his Instagram account. “It’ll also help fund many of the programs I’m building with my Foundation. I’ll continue to forge pathways for kids interested in golf. This note is a receipt of for that.”
While Varner never did earn that elusive first win on the PGA Tour, the North Carolina native qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs for the seventh consecutive season this year. He also won the 2022 PIF Saudi International, which stirred rumors that he was fielding interest from LIV Golf.
“I’m obviously not going,” Varner said to SI in June after receiving what he called a “nuts” offer from LIV Golf. “I’ve spoken with (PGA Tour commissioner) Jay (Monahan), I’ve spoken with a lot of people I look up to and it just wasn’t worth it to me for what it was worth. That’s pretty simple.”
Varner will make his LIV Golf debut this week at The International in Bolton, Massachusetts.
LIV Golf will feature some new players at its next event near Boston.
The PGA Tour made some changes and picked up some momentum in its battle with LIV Golf, but the new series will feature some new players at its next event.
On Tuesday, the upstart circuit led by Greg Norman and backed by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia announced six golfers would be taking their talents to the new series: Cameron Smith, Joaquin Niemann, Marc Leishman, Harold Varner III, Cameron Tringale and Anirban Lahiri.
The new additions mean LIV Golf now has six of the top 30 players on the Official World Golf Ranking (as of Aug. 21) as it prepares to host its fourth event at the International, Sept. 2-4, near Boston.
When asked about his reported interest in LIV Golf after his Open Championship victory, Cameron Smith said, “I don’t know, mate. My team around me worries about all that stuff. I’m here to win golf tournaments.”
Reports then broke the week of the FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind that he was taking his talents to LIV Golf, but Smith didn’t confirm or deny the news.
“I’m a man of my word and whenever you guys need to know anything, it’ll be said by me,” he said at the time, while also noting he planned to play the Presidents Cup, Sept. 20-25. Smith was referring to fellow Aussie pro, Cameron Percy, who said, “Unfortunately, yeah, they’re gone,” in regard to Smith and Leishman being bound for LIV Golf.
Niemann told Golf.com at the U.S. Open that he wanted to play against the best players in the world.
“They’re still here and as long as they’re here, I’m not going anywhere. No chance,” he said in June. “If I was 40? Maybe it would be different.”
When Varner won the PIF Saudi International on the Asian Tour earlier this year, rumors began to swirl that he may leave the PGA Tour. He sat down with commissioner Jay Monahan in March and went on to say, “I’ve always supported the PGA Tour when they needed me, and I want to be there.”
Since turning professional in 2009, Tringale has made $17,426,908 in 338 starts and holds the dubious distinction as the man to win the most money without ever winning a PGA Tour event. Lahiri has also never won on Tour, but won twice on the European Tour in a matter of three weeks in February 2015 at the Maybank Malaysian Open and Hero Indian Open.
