LIV Golf: We want your softest golfers
And an update to the "coolest golfer on tour"
A discussion with some of my fellow golf sickos brought up a topic I’ve covered before here - which is who is the coolest guy on Tour?
That article is about three months old at this point, so I went through it and noticed that Cam Smith was one of those golfers.
It makes sense to me - he’s laid back, has a mullet and a terrible mustache so he’s doing his ‘own thing’ and such. Also endearing to me was a quote from him last year during the FedEx Cup Playoffs when he was asked what he’d do if he won the $15,000,000 prize. This was his answer.
After he won The Open (capping a year where he also won The PLAYERS Championship among other successes), he was asked about rumors that he was set to join the LIV Golf tour. He reacted in a way that made me very concerned - given the above quote, he didn’t seem like a guy who would chase the money. But instead, he just told the reporter it was an inappropriate question at the time and then when pressed said he didn’t make those kind of decisions, he left them to his team.
Which is so dumb - you’re going to delegate the decision of whether you play on the PGA Tour to … your team? No, you are not.
Rumors have since escalated and again, Cam had to sit in front of reporters yesterday before the beginning of this years FedEx Playoffs. (A playoff in which yesterday the current LIV golfers trying to still play were denied by a federal judge - therefore, if Cam admitted to joining LIV, he’d be on the outside looking in.) He got the question he knew he’d get again, and again he bobbed and weaved:
What bothers me is not just that Cam has turned out to care a LOT about money (not just taking a reported $100MM to join LIV but also doing whatever he can to get at the $18MM from the FedEx Cup) despite his earlier claims - but he’s just so soft when it comes to facing the music.
It’s a trend we saw with guys like Ian Poulter, Graeme McDowell, Lee Westwood, Brooks Koepka, Sergio Garcia and others. About the only guys who did answer questions were guys like Dustin Johnson (who legendarily doesn’t give a fuck about anything), Phil Mickelson (looking like a hostage victim) and Bryson DeChambeau who still waffled a bit but at least acknowledged it was all about the money.
The biggest defenders of LIV Golf will say that it’s idiotic to turn down generational wealth, and it’s clear that everybody has a number that will get them to sign up here, regardless of who is writing the checks.
So why is it so hard for the golfers to simply SAY this? Like, for instance, David Feherty did who signed with them as an on-course announcer.
I’m sure LIV is asking them to explain themselves in a certain way, but these guys are - in theory - some of the best golfers in the world. Cam Smith is currently World #2 and the reigning Open and Players champion. Why can’t he just say that? Maybe he will when he officially signs, but almost no one has just been that direct. Why not?
It’s because they’re soft, and they don’t want to get tough questions. Can you see Rory McIlroy tossing back these mealy-mouthed answers or just refusing to answer them at all? Or Justin Thomas or Scottie Scheffler? It’s such a bad look.
Cam Smith is a tremendous get for LIV Golf, and there are other big names rumored as well. Good for LIV. But just like your “CEO” Greg Norman, your roster is mostly full of guys who run from a challenge.