‘He’s too young to retire’: Cam Smith and Australian golf ponder life without LIV’s riches

With Saudi investment drying up, one of LIV’s highest-profile recruits may be having second thoughts as Australian officials call for the global golf ecosystem to come together

H

e was Australian golf’s shining light, a likeable everyman whose career has found the rough. Now, Cameron Smith “may be rethinking” his decision to stick with LIV Golf, according to the head of the PGA of Australia, after Saudi Arabian investors withdrew funding from the upstart tour.

The entire Australian golf sector is wrestling with what a future without LIV – or with a fiscally restrained LIV-lite – might look like, as the South Australia government pushes on with spending $45m for an upgrade to a course still scheduled to host a LIV tournament from 2028.

Australia’s golfing institutions are immune to any collapse of LIV, yet the links within the sport run deep. As the body for golf’s professionals, the PGA of Australia wants the best for Smith and his countrymen. A junior entry program run by Golf Australia is sponsored by Smith’s LIV team Ripper GC, and the sport’s governing body celebrates the nation’s best golfers performing at their peak. All rely on the sport’s biggest names playing local tournaments.