AUGUSTA, Ga. — Cameron Smith returned to Augusta National this week with a small measure of trepidation, an unusual feeling for someone who has contended two of the past three years at the Masters and refers to the host course as his “happy place.”
Smith now competes in the LIV Golf League, and he remains the last big name from the PGA Tour to defect to the series that launched last summer and is backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. And having heard so much noise and sensed so much acrimony, he didn’t know what kind of reception he would receive when he walked onto the range Monday.
To his relief, it was the usual dose of hugs and handshakes.
“And it was nice,” the reigning British Open champion said to the largest gathering of the day in the interview room.
What was he expecting?
“I wasn’t really sure, to be honest,” said Smith, a 29-year-old Australian with six PGA Tour career wins. “I was just kind of letting it all happen naturally — went out to the range and did my stuff and, yeah, it was just a really nice experience. … I think there’s a lot of stuff going on at the moment that doesn’t need to be going on, especially in the media. I think it’s definitely wound up a little bit too much.”
The 87th edition of the Masters, which tees of Thursday, has a full plate of activity.
LIV Golf would appear to be the main course.
Smith has not competed against the best of the PGA Tour since the season-ending Tour Championship last August. Dustin Johnson, the 2020 Masters champ who was with LIV from its debut event last June in London, it’s been a little longer.
It didn’t take long for the mix of players from the rival tours to cause a stir. The practice round tee sheet listed a most tantalizing foursome of Tiger Woods, Fred Couples, Tom Kim and Bryson DeChambeau, who complained only last week that Woods had cut him off ever since the 2020 U.S. Open winner went to LIV.
Turns out it was a Masters mix-up. The fourth was actually Rory McIlroy, the loudest PGA Tour supporter over the last year.
Couples has made his thoughts clear, recently saying at a PGA Tour Champions breakfast that Phil Mickelson was a “nut bag” and Sergio Garcia a “clown.” Couples, the 1992 Masters champion and still immensely popular, said he has no personal beef with either and would have no trouble sitting with them at the Masters Club dinner Tuesday night or playing in the same group.
“I have no problem with any of them,” Couples said. “Just please do not bash a tour that I have 43 years invested in. It bothers the hell out of me. They don’t bother me. They really don’t. They’re golfers. I’m a golfer. I respect them all.”
The Masters typically releases tee times on Tuesday afternoon, and now that has the added anticipation of seeing which LIV players — 18 of them are at the Masters — will be in the same group as PGA Tour loyalists.
This isn’t the first major to mix the tours, though. Shane Lowry played with two LIV golfers, Mickelson and Louis Oosthuizen, at the U.S. Open last summer. Adam Scott played with Johnson and Marc Leishman at the British Open.
“Look, obviously there’s going to be some pairings that are going to be interesting this week,” Lowry said. “I always say this about professional golfers: We all work in the same office. If you work in the same office, you’re not going to like everyone in there. Same way as this. I met Dustin on the range — I always get on well with Dustin. It was good to see him.”
And come Thursday, there will plenty of other things to talk about.
“There’s a lot to hype,” Lowry said. “But if you’re paired with whoever, you don’t really care about what they’re doing. You’re just trying to win the tournament.”
One question about LIV golfers is how much they’re playing, because the new circuit _ which stages 54-hole no-cut tournaments with 48-player fields — has had only three events in 2023. Smith played five times going into the Masters last year, and he briefly challenged Scottie Scheffler until the Texan pulled away to win his first major.
This year, Smith has played four times, and the only 72-hole event was the Saudi International on the Asian Tour, where he missed the cut. That was followed by three LIV events, and he finished outside of the top 20 in the last two.
Smith is not in peak form, which he attributes to a long break at home in Australia during the offseason. Augusta National tends to bring out the best in him, though, and he’s hoping the good vibes will lead to a great performance.
If not him, then Smith would love to see another player from his tour with a shot at the green jacket.
“I think it’s just important for LIV guys to be up there because I think we need to be up there,” Smith said. “I think there’s a lot of chatter about these guys don’t play real golf, these guys don’t play real golf courses. For sure, I’ll be the first one to say, the fields aren’t as strong. I’m the first one to say that.
“But we’ve still got a lot of guys up there that can play some really serious golf, and we compete against each other hard week in and week out, and we’re trying to do the same things that we did six months ago.”
Brooks Koepka is coming off a one-shot victory Sunday in the LIV Golf-Orlando tournament, where the greens were actually brown, as well as crusty and fast. It was played on the Crooked Cat course at Orange County National, where the PGA Tour used to stage its qualifying school.
Johnson was asked about any similarities between Crooked Cat and Augusta National.
“I don’t think you could have those in the same sentence,” he said, “other than I played there last week and I’m playing here this week.”