Australian golfers Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman have been introduced as the latest LIV Golf defectors on Tuesday evening.
It had beforehand been reported the provide to lure Smith was round $143 million.
It is main information for the game given world No.2 Smith would be the highest-ranked participant to defect from the long-standing and highly effective PGA Tour to aspect with the Saudi-backed insurgent league, which is headed up by Australian icon Greg Norman.
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Information of Smith’s defection first leaked as he gained the British Open final month, though he had declined to verify or deny the rumours.
He held off so as to compete within the Tour Championship to have a crack on the $26 million winner’s prize, however fell significantly wanting first place.
The winner of that, Rory McIlroy, has been the strongest critic of his fellow professionals signing with LIV, which was initially considered as a solution to leverage the PGA Tour into growing prizemoney and giving gamers extra energy.
Norman’s first huge recruit was a number of main winner Phil Mickelson, whose identify has largely turned to mud in current months, not just for his defection but in addition flippant feedback made concerning the human rights crimes the Saudi authorities is accused of.
LIV has slowly recruited a powerful roster {of professional} golfers, highlighted by Mickelson and Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau.
However, till now, LIV had did not lure a present top-10-ranked participant. Smith is the primary. He sits solely behind America’s Scottie Scheffler on the planet rankings.
Whereas LIV Golf has been accused of tearing the game aside, it’s making strikes to intensify the profile in Australia.
Norman plans to deliver three tournaments Down Underneath subsequent 12 months, the place Aussies will be capable of see Smith, Leishman and different high names – a luxurious that antipodean followers would in any other case probably by no means get.
The subsequent LIV Golf occasion is that this week in Boston, the place Smith and Leishman may make their debuts within the new league.
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