There’s an argument to be made that the amount of money in professional golf, despite the sport’s post-pandemic popularity surge, has spiraled out of control. That it’s not sustainable. That it’s even a little off-putting given the state of the world and the cost of living within it. There’s also an argument to be made that LIV Golf is responsible for all of that.
That’s why Cameron Smith’s comments to the Daily Mirror’s Sam Frost on Wednesday raised eyebrows across golf. Smith joined LIV Golf in August 2022, signing a reported $140 million contract with the Saudi Public Investment Fund-backed league.
Smith was one of several nine-figure deals LIV Golf handed out between 2021 and 2023. “Put up or shut up,” the upstart venture effectively said to the PGA Tour, which responded by dotting its schedule with $20-million, no-cut “Signature Events” in an effort to keep financial pace with their new rivals.
But now, with PIF having pulled its funding of LIV Golf and new PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp poised to revamp the PGA Tour schedule yet again, Smith believes that the financial arms race he is in part responsible for needs to end.
“It’s time for [prize money] to come back to the way it was,” is a heck of a quote coming from the Ripper G.C. captain.
In fairness to Smith, his comments were in response to a question about LIV Golf’s expected scale back following the 2026 season, but some fellow pros who turned down LIV’s golden ticket must have done a spit take.
The Aussie, along with the likes of Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm, turned on the proverbial faucet. They poured hundreds of millions of dollars into their own glasses, and now that they’re full, Smith wants to turn it off again.
That’s not going to sit well with some, especially those who played better golf than the 2022 Open champ over the past several years but still ended up with far less in their bank accounts.
While the messenger may not be ideal, the message is one that the PGA Tour (and whatever remains of LIV Golf leadership) are already taking seriously. Golf is bigger than ever, but that means more competition for eyeballs and wallets. Just take Barstool Sports’ made-for-YouTube Internet Invitational, for instance.
This week, Barstool announced a winner’s purse of $4 million, a 300% increase from 2025 for the amateur influencer event. That’s larger than many opposite-field PGA Tour events and LPGA tournaments. That level of financial proliferation simply doesn’t seem sustainable in a world ravaged by inflation, high interest rates, collapsing alternative currencies (see: Bitcoin) and war.
“It’s been an awesome four to five years for us golfers,” Smith said, but at the risk of sounding like a hypocrite, even he is willing to admit the good times don’t last forever.