PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Cameron Smith, the 2022 winner of the Players Championship, won’t be defending his title at TPC Sawgrass when the tournament begins Thursday.
That’s because he’s prohibited from doing so, having been banned by the PGA Tour for joining LIV Golf.
That is the most tangible tournament-week stain related to the divide in the game since PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan took his hard-line stance a year ago when players began signing on with the Saudi-backed LIV tour for guaranteed mega-bucks.
The absence of Smith this week screams for there to be some eventual resolution in which the players can play freely on whatever tour they choose.
How is golf better with this chasm between the PGA Tour and LIV?
It isn’t.
How is the Players Championship, which every year boasts about having the strongest field in golf, better without the likes of Smith and some of his fellow LIV players, such as Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau competing against Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler?
It’s not.
Nor is it the best field in golf anymore. Not even close.
The Players Championship has forever pushed itself as golf’s “fifth major’’ championship. That’s now pure folly considering that the four actual major championships (at least for the moment) have not prohibited LIV players from competing.
Smith, who’ll be defending his British Open title in July, lives 5 miles away from TPC Sawgrass, but he’ll be spending much of the week fishing instead of defending his Players title.
That’s not good for golf or for its fans.
“Yes, it’s awkward,’’ Monahan conceded Tuesday, referring to the absence of the defending champion. “But … ultimately that’s a decision he made.’’
Not allowing Smith to defend his title is a decision Monahan made, and it’s a bad one.
Golf’s leaders, such as Monahan, are constantly pounding their chests in public about making the game better. Banning some of the best players from playing on the PGA Tour, however, does nothing to accomplish that.
As a result, while McIlroy, Rahm, Scheffler and many other top players in the world will be teeing it up this week, Smith, who was ranked No. 2 in the world when he joined LIV, will be fishing.
“I think it’ll be a pretty quiet week on the water,” Smith told Golf Digest writer Evin Priest recently when asked about his plans for Players week. “I think all the residents will be out watching the golf tournament, so I’ll be able to strap out and have the water to myself.”
Smith, who since 2016 has lived in Ponte Vedra, just down the street from PGA Tour headquarters and TPC Sawgrass, is one of 31 golfers now with LIV who played in the 2022 Players Championship. That includes the top three on the final leaderboard: Smith, runner-up Anirban Lahiri of India and English veteran Paul Casey.
The 29-year-old Aussie also had his member playing privileges at TPC Sawgrass revoked, forcing him to go elsewhere to practice and hone his game. His personal parking space, which is one of the perks as a defending Players champion, has had his name removed from the sign which now reads: “Tour players only.”
“Would it be better if the defending champion was here this week? Absolutely,” McIlroy, the 2019 Players winner, said Tuesday. “But he made a decision that he felt was the best thing for him, and he knew that decision was going to come with consequences.”
Monahan and his PGA Tour policy board members have the power to change those consequences and improve the sport by making some effort to coexist with LIV, but the commissioner wants no part of it.
“That’s not a possibility,’’ he said. “We are who we are. We’re the most pro-competitive, legacy-driven tour in men’s professional golf. The players playing on that tour are contractually obligated to play on that tour. So, any hypotheticals at this point really aren’t relevant. Our position has not changed.”
Bad answer. Bad for the game.
Max Homa, one of the rising stars in the game and one of the most popular players on the PGA Tour, disagrees with Monahan’s stance.
“All of those guys that you can name that left [for LIV] are great for golf — champion golfers, interesting golfers, so many great stories across their careers,’’ Homa said Tuesday. “Having them back would be a good thing for golf at large. It’s a shame that I find Bryson to be one of the most interesting people who has probably ever swung a golf club.
“The most frustrating part of the fracture of golf right now is that everyone plays a role in entertaining the fans. And since there’s a divide, you’re missing something at the very least. As a fan of golf, that’s a shame that you have to watch them in two separate events. But such is life, I guess.’’
And yet it doesn’t have to be. That’s the frustrating part.