Texarkana Gazette

LIV Golf effect noticeable as ever at Players Championsh­ip

- DOUG FERGUSON

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Such are the times in golf that so much attention at The Players Championsh­ip is on a player who is not even part of the strongest field of the year.

Stranger still is the player in question is not Tiger Woods.

Cameron Smith is a reminder of the fractured world of profession­al golf. He is the defending champion of the PGA Tour’s premier tournament, not able to return this year because the tour has suspended him for joining Saudi-funded LIV Golf. And it’s not just Smith.

The runner-up a year ago was Anirban Lahiri, followed by Paul Casey. They are among 36 players who have defected to LIV Golf, and they are among 17 players who were part of the windy, wild weekend at the TPC Sawgrass last year.

The Australian flag still flies outside the clubhouse in honor of the champion’s home country. Smith’s pitching wedge is on display in the clubhouse, part of the tradition for the winner to leave a club that was meaningful in his win.

But there’s no Smith — or his mullet — even though the No. 5 player in the world has lived down the street since 2016. He probably can be found this week with a rod and reel, not a wedge and a putter.

“I think it’ll be a pretty quiet week on the water,” Smith told Golf Digest two weeks ago at LIV Golf’s opening event in Mexico.

Even at the richest event on the PGA Tour — a $25 million purse with $4.5 million going to the winner — the subject of LIV Golf is never too far away.

Smith is the first defending champion to miss The Players since Woods in 2014, who was recovering from the first of five back surgeries. Woods isn’t playing this week either, deciding to rest his battered legs ahead of the Masters.

“Yes, it’s awkward,” PGA Tour Commission­er Jay Monahan said. “But you know, ultimately that’s a

decision he made, and we’ve got an unbelievab­le field here this week and a history and tradition that one of these 144 is going to go seek to get.”

The Players still has the strongest

field so far this year, helped by the 144-man field. But by pure numbers, it can be difficult to distinguis­h between The Players and the Arnold Palmer Invitation­al last week at Bay Hill, or from the Genesis Invitation­al

at Riviera a few weeks back.

Bay Hill had 43 of the top 50 players in the world ranking. The Players has 44 of the top 50, the difference being Harold Varner III (another LIV player) dropped out of the top 50 this week.

“It’s not going to be as big a gap as it maybe has been in the past,” Jon Rahm said, though he still noted the increase in prize money ($25 million), world ranking points (the most in golf except for majors) and FedEx Cup points.

“And then the legacy that a tournament has,” Rahm said. “Winning this event is a big step forward to a Hall-of-Fame career … arguably as close as you can get to being a major champion without officially being one. It is our championsh­ip. So I think that’s what makes it different to some of the other events.”

Left unchanged is the dynamic nature of the Stadium Course.

It is best known for the island green on the par-3 17th hole and for its history of not favoring a particular style of game.

 ?? (AP photo/Charlie Neibergall) ?? Tyrrell Hatton, of England, left, reacts to his shot on the fifth green Wednesday during a practice round for The Players Championsh­ip golf tournament in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
(AP photo/Charlie Neibergall) Tyrrell Hatton, of England, left, reacts to his shot on the fifth green Wednesday during a practice round for The Players Championsh­ip golf tournament in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

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