Cameron Smith said he expects LIV Golf's season-ending Team Championship to go ahead as planned, even as Bryson DeChambeau led a player meeting to discuss the league's future.
The Team Championship is scheduled for August 27-30 in Michigan, but doubts have lingered over whether it will take place. Major winner Martin Kaymer previously said he gave the event just a five per cent chance of happening.
LIV Golf launched in 2021 as a rival to the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour. The league's future beyond this season is now in doubt after Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund confirmed in April that it is ending its funding for the series. LIV is seeking alternative investment.
Smith optimistic despite uncertainty
Smith said players have been told to prepare as though the Team Championship is going ahead. "We have been told to prepare as though it's going ahead. So we are expecting it to happen," he said.
"I'm really unsure, but we had a great year there last year in Detroit, and we're hoping we get back there," he said. "It is a great golf course, a great venue, and the crowds really turned up as well. I would be disappointed if it wasn't."
Asked whether he had made preparations to join another tour, Smith said he had not started making those moves and was instead focused on "keeping the team alive." "I am a positive guy, so I've made no effort to go seek anything else," he said.
"I don't really understand what is going to happen. I think it's all up in the air. I know that the LIV team is working hard to get us to play next year and working hard for us. They do a lot of hard work behind the scenes," Smith said.
"I want it to work to be honest. It is great fun out here. The team that we've got, I feel like we make each other better, better people and better golfers as well. I would hate to see it go away."
Smith conceded he could be left with little option but to return to the PGA Tour. "I mean, if it was the only option, I think that's where everyone would want to be for sure, 100 per cent," he said. "It would go back to old times."
DeChambeau leads player meeting
Following Smith's comments, LIV Golf players held a meeting reportedly led by DeChambeau to discuss the league's future. According to Richard Bland, DeChambeau told players the full picture would emerge over the next couple of weeks and said he was "positive" about what they were hearing.
"Bryson just ran through what he knows, and obviously, we're trying to do it as a group, but we're individuals as well, so I think the next two to three weeks is going to be where it's at," Bland told The Athletic.
"We're in this together; we're fully backing Scott (O'Neil). I think probably in the next two to three weeks we'll have a bigger picture," Bland said. "We're just in that kind of stage at the minute that we're positive with what's going on, but we just need everything to be fully signed off so you can go forward."
Asked whether the Team Championship would take place, Bland said: "I don't know. We have just got to wait and see on that."
Lee Westwood declined to discuss the meeting. "No, I'm not talking about it. Blandy shouldn't be either," he said.
