Cameron Smith shall be welcome to play the Australian Open – and another occasion down below he chooses this summer – even when the newly topped British Open champion joins LIV Golf.
In an enormous win for Australian golf followers, officials have opted towards following the lead of the US PGA and Europe’s DP World Tour in banning Australasian Tour members who commit to the Saudi-backed breakaway league.
Watch Smith’s brazen response within the video above
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Smith continues to be linked to a $US100 million ($A140m) transfer to Greg Norman’s so-called insurgent tour instantly after the PGA Tour’s FedExCup playoffs conclude later this month.
The world No.2 provided a “no comment” when requested this week about his reported plans, however Australian golf officials have given Smith the inexperienced mild to tee up in his nationwide championship in Melbourne from December 1-4.
Australian PGA Tour chief Gavin Kirkman mentioned whereas LIV Golf-aligned gamers had been suspended from the PGA and DP World Excursions for being in “breach of their (tours’) regulations”, the principles are completely different for Australasian Tour members.
“(Our) regulations sit underneath the constitution and the players coming home to play, as long as there’s no conflicting event, they’ll be welcome to play,” Kirkman mentioned after revealing a document $8 million prize pool for the 16-event summer schedule on Thursday.
“The Australian players have come home and, wherever they’re playing at the moment, if they’re members of our organisation, they’ll be eligible to play and that’s been discussed with other tours.”
Smith all however confirmed he’d contest the historic first mixed-gender Australian Open, being co-hosted by the Victoria and Kingston Heath golf golf equipment, within the wonderful aftermath to his watershed victory ultimately month’s a hundred and fiftieth Open at St Andrews.
Due to COVID-19, the Florida-based 28-year-old hasn’t been ready to return to Australia for the reason that 2019 Presidents Cup.
Scroll to see the Australasian summer schedule and the monster prize cash on supply
However, if he does in actual fact be a part of LIV Golf, followers can look ahead to seeing loads extra of the mullet-haired cult hero on Australian fairways.
As well as to a deliberate 48-man occasion in Sydney in April, LIV Golf is alleged to be plotting to stage two extra tournaments in Australia subsequent 12 months.
Australian golf powerbrokers are accepting LIV Golf’s looming presence down below, if not fairly but embracing it.
“I can’t control what LIV Golf are going to do. You can see globally no one can control what they’re doing at the moment,” Kirkman mentioned.
“We’re going to have fans with mixed opinions. Some people are going to love it and some people aren’t going to love it.
“If it fits in, it fits in. But we’ll talk closely to Golf Australia and the WPGA Tour and just work on on what we keep working on.”
After asserting the main prize cash enhance, Kirkman and Golf Australia chief James Sutherland envision placing the game “on the front pages”.
Requested if LIV Golf’s place on the Australian golf calendar glad the “any publicity is good publicity” adage, Kirkman mentioned: “If it’s a golf event, at some stage they’re going to get fans there”.
“Is it going to be good for the game? What I don’t want – and what I don’t like to hear about and read about at the moment – is people arguing what’s good for the game and what’s not.
“The Australian public and the Australian fan will have their opinion and if they get out and see some golf under a different format, that’s going to be up to them.
“And they’re going to enjoy it and golf is going to be in our country and it will be (on the front page) for that event.”
In the meantime, golf officials hope a bumper 17-tournament summer schedule boasting a document $8 million prize pool will show a game-changer for Australia’s battling touring professionals and aspiring main champions.
Two years after many gamers have been pressured to queue up for JobKeeper to make ends meet in the course of the peak of COVID-19, the Australasian tour’s three greatest occasions will return providing $5.1 million in whole prize cash.
As properly as the $1.7 million Australian Open, which is being staged concurrently with the Ladies’s Australian Open for the primary time in December, the $2 million Australian PGA Championship and $1.4 million New Zealand Open, one other 14 occasions – at the least – are on the calendar.
AUSTRALASIAN SUMMER OF GOLF SCHEDULE
– $200,000 WA PGA, Kalgoorlie Golf Membership, October 13-16
– $162,500 WA Open, West Australian Golf Membership, October 20-23
– $200,000 VIC PGA, Moonah Hyperlinks Resort, November 10-13
– $200,000 Queensland PGA, Nudgee Golf Membership, November 17-20
– $2 million Australian PGA Championship, Royal Queensland Golf Membership, November 25-28
– $1.7 million Australian Open, Victoria Golf Membership and Kingston Heath Golf Membership, December 1-4
– $175,000 Gippsland Tremendous 6, Warragul Nation Membership, December 8-11
– $200,000 TPS Victoria, Rosebud Nation Membership, January 26-29
– $200,000 TPS Murray River, Cobram-Barooga Golf Membership, February 2-5
– VIC Open, TBA, February 9-12 (prize cash TBA)
– $200,000 TPS Sydney, Bonnie Doon Golf Membership, February 16-19
– $200,000 TPS Hunter Valley, Oaks Cypress Lakes Resort, February 23-26
– $1.4 million New Zealand Open, Millbrook Resort, March 2-5
– $150,000 New Zealand PGA, Auckland, March 9-12
– $400,000 NSW Open, TBA, March
– $200,000 Season Finale, TBA, late March
– with AAP
Watch Nick Kyrgios’ touching tribute to his mom within the video under
