Cameron Smith is latest top player to join the LIV Golf Series

• Cameron Smith is the latest top player to join the LIV Golf Series.
• The Australian won the British Open last month.
• He will make his LIV debut at the International in Boston from September 2-4.

Cameron Smith, who won the British Open, is the latest top player to join the new LIV Golf Series. The series announced on Tuesday that he would be in the field for its next event.

The Australian was one of six new players who joined the LIV Golf Invitational Boston tour, which was paid for by Saudi Arabia from September 2–4.

As the number two player in the world, Smith, who is 29 years old, will be the best player to ever play in a LIV Golf event.

Smith was often linked to LIV Golf after he won the 150th British Open at St. Andrews last month, but he didn’t talk about it while he was playing in the PGA FedEx Cup playoffs this month.

A statement from the LIV on Tuesday said that Smith would be one of six players making their debuts at the International in Massachusetts. The other five players were Marc Leishman, the best golfer in Chile, Joaquin Niemann, Harold Varner III (world no. 46), Cameron Tringale (55), and Anirban Lahiri, the best golfer in India (92).

Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Patrick Reed, and Dustin Johnson are just some of the big names who have played in LIV Golf because of its record $25 million purses and 54-hole format.

But its creation has led to a bitter fight with the US PGA tour, which has been around for a long time, and a lot of lawsuits.

Rory McIlroy, who has won four majors, has been one of the players who has spoken out the most against LIV Golf.

The 33-year-old golfer from Northern Ireland made his point clear when he won $18 million at the PGA Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta on Sunday.

“It means an awful lot,” McIlroy said. “This is an incredibly proud moment for me but it should also be an incredibly proud moment for the PGA Tour. They have had some hard times this year but we’re getting through it.”

Players in LIV have been asked hard questions about Saudi Arabia’s record on human rights, and they have been accused of being greedy for going after the big rewards.

McIlroy and others have said that LIV events are not much more than exhibitions of golf because there is no halfway cut and only a small number of people play in 54-hole events instead of the usual 72.

But PGA commissioner Jay Monahan said last week that tour players had agreed to compete in 20 events next season, including 12 “elevated” stops with $20 million in prize money and minimum season pay amounts for fully exempt players.

Lee Westwood of England is one of the golfers who joined LIV Golf for its record $25 million purses. In an interview with Golf Digest that came out Friday, Westwood said that he thinks the PGA is trying to do what LIV Golf has already done.

“I laugh at what the PGA Tour players have come up with,” Westwood told the magazine. “It’s just a copy of what LIV is doing. There are a lot of hypocrites out there.

“They all say LIV is ‘not competitive.’ They all point at the no-cut aspect of LIV and the short fields. Now, funnily enough, they are proposing 20 events that look a lot like LIV.”

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