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.