Cameron Smith wants LIV to focus more on the international markets and drop some of its US-based tournaments from the schedule in years to come following the success the fledgling series has had in Australia.
As it stands, there are five US stops on the breakaway circuit’s 2024 calendar, with the venues for the Individual and Team Championships yet to be announced.
Smith, who is captain of the all-Australian Ripper GC team, admitted it will be hard to match the popularity of LIV Golf Adelaide, but said the sport is already saturated in America.
“I think the Australian fans are pretty hard to recreate around the world, but you just pick a city or a country that I guess hadn't seen good golf for a long time,” said Smith, ahead of the 2024 LIV Golf Adelaide event.
“It worked last year. It's going to work again this year here. I can see it definitely working internationally a lot better than the US because there's just so many tournaments in the US.
“I'm definitely putting my hand up for more of an international schedule and getting fans out that haven't seen quality golf for a while and showing them what LIV is all about.”
Smith’s sentiments were echoed by two of his Ripper GC teammates Marc Leishman and Lucas Herbert.
Given the fact a number of teams are made up of players from the same country or continent, Leishman called on LIV bosses to lean into that element more and alter the schedule accordingly.
“Like Cam said, there's opportunities all around the world, markets that haven't been hit yet like Adelaide hadn't been,” Leishman said.
“You've got Torque – there's an opportunity for a tournament in Chile; the South African lads I'm sure would love to have one in South Africa; you've got all of Asia and India.
“There's just so many opportunities, and I think places - like Cam said - that haven't seen world-class golf for a long time, I think that's where there's huge opportunities.
“Obviously the [PGA] Tour plays a lot in America, and they've got that fan base there. I think we can really create a huge worldwide fan base because there's a lot of big financial markets around the whole world."
Should LIV bosses pay heed to these comments, it would open the door to establishing ‘home’ venues, something which appeals to Herbert.
“The team aspect makes it very easy for a country, for example, Chile to follow the Torque team or all those sort of markets,” Herbert said.
“Honestly, I think by all reports that I'm hearing about this event [Adelaide] last year and obviously what I've seen so far, I think you're going to struggle to recreate it 13 times again around the world. It's just a special event.
“But I do feel like with a country sort of dominating each team, I feel like that is going to allow for maybe a market where our international events can get hyped up really, really well and really get behind a home team kind of feeling.”
