Australia will not block LIV players from competing at home
Australia will not block LIV players from competing at home: In the wake of reports that the winner of the British Open, Cameron Smith, has already agreed to join the breakaway circuit.
The boss of the Australian Tour has stated that golfers from Australia who sign up with the Saudi-backed LIV Series will still be welcome to compete in events held in their home country.
Two of the most important tournaments on the schedule of the PGA Tour of Australasia are co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour. These tournaments are the Australian Open and the Australian PGA Championship.
In June, the DP World Tour took action to bar certain players from its tournaments because they had competed in a LIV event. After two challenging years that were severely disrupted by COVID-19, Australia is keeping its fingers crossed that its top names will be able to make it back home to give the local tour a boost.
PGA
The Chief Executive Officer of the PGA of Australia, Gavin Kirkman, made the following statement to the press: “The players coming home to play will be welcome to participate as long as there is no competing event.”
“The Australian players that come home from wherever they’re playing at the moment will be eligible to play if they’re members of our organisation, and it’s something that’s been negotiated with the other tours,”
LIV has recruited a lot of relatively unknown Australian golfers, including Matt Jones, who is now ranked 82nd in the world. Travis Smyth, an Australian who is not ranked among the top 400 players in the world, was one of the four players who split a $1.5 million prize pool for finishing second in the team competition at the LIV opener held in June outside of London.
According to a story from the British newspaper Telegraph, Australia’s top player Smith, the world number two, has inked an agreement to join LIV that is worth more than one hundred million dollars. This would be a big coup for the breakaway series.
Playoffs
LIV and Smith, who will be playing in the FedExCup playoffs in Memphis starting later on Thursday, have both declined to comment on the report. Following his victory at the British Open, Smith expressed excitement about competing in a couple of tournaments in his native country of Australia. The LIV has stated that it will enter the Australian market the following year, and local golf media has speculated that the series, which is being led by CEO Greg Norman, may feature as many as three tournaments in Australia in 2023.
That has the potential to entice a large number of high-profile players to compete in events in Australia, which has historically had trouble doing so due to its geographic isolation and the comparatively low prize money on offer.
Kirkman stated that his trip was unable to exert any influence over how LIV worked in the country and that the organization was responsible for managing its own affairs.
He stated, “Some people are going to love it and other people aren’t, but if it comes to Australia we’ve got to be in a position where we can stay focused on our approach.” “Some people are going to love it and some people aren’t,” he said.
“Will it be beneficial to the game if we do this? People debating what is good for the game and what is not good for the game is something that I do not want and something that I do not like to hear about or read about at the time.
“It’s up to them (the fans) to decide whether or not they want to go see golf played in a different format.”