This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning.
Cameron Smith has had one heck of a year on the PGA Tour. He won in a thriller in Maui back in January. He won the Players Championship in March with some gutsy shots down the stretch. And then last month he won the 150th Open Championship with one of the best final rounds in major championship history.
Yesterday he had the chance to step up to the plate again and be an important figure in golf but instead he just backed away from it all with a “no comment” and a bunch of empty words about his immediate future and in doing so, tarnished a reputation that just a few weeks ago was one of the best in professional golf.
Reports came out yesterday that Smith has signed to a $100 million deal with LIV Golf, the Saudi-funded golf league that had a rough day in court yesterday afternoon. Smith has long been rumored to be making the jump to the empty exhibition league and he would be the biggest, most important name to date to do so.
Early last evening the No. 2 player in the world had his press conference in Memphis, where the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs kick off this week, and he was rightfully asked about the LIV Golf report.
Smith didn’t deny it and he didn’t confirm it, he just said he had “no comment” on that, which is a really lame way of ducking the question while also pretty much confirming the report to be true.
'You'll hear news from me, not Cameron Percy.' ❌
Cameron Smith says any news about his future on the PGA Tour or joining LIV Golf Series will only come from him, insisting he's focused on the FedExCup Playoffs. 🗞️ pic.twitter.com/FuNjbxNlkB
— Sky Sports Golf (@SkySportsGolf) August 10, 2022
Look, Smith has every right in the world to go to LIV. It would be an absolute bummer if he did and it would stink for professional golf but it’s a decision that he can make. Other guys have sadly had no problem going to the sportswashing league and he’d be just another golfer going off to the land of 54-hole events with no cuts and really no meaning.
But to not come out with a definitive answer when asked about it before the start of the PGA Tour playoffs is a pretty cowardly thing to do. If he has in fact signed the deal then he should have said that he is going to LIV and let the distractions and everything else that would follow to just happen. If you’re gonna take that huge amount of money and ditch a Tour that has given you so much then you also have to accept the backlash that would come from it.
Instead, he just said: “My goal here is to win the FedEx Cup playoffs. That’s all I’m here for.”
Now it’s a little harder to cheer for a guy who just a few weeks ago was the coolest golfer in the world.
But hey, good luck in the playoffs, dude.
Quick hits: Little league player’s awesome gesture… MLB player has phone pop out of pants on slide… Hutchinson’s amazing ‘Billie Jean’ Hard Knocks performance… And more.
– A Little League baseball player gave the sweetest message to the opposing pitcher after getting hit in the head with a pitch.
– Pirates infielder Rodolfo Castro had his phone fall out of his pocket while sliding into third base and MLB fans had jokes.
– Lions rookie Aidan Hutchinson absolutely nailed his performance of “Billie Jean.”
The Yankees made two horrific baserunning blunders on the same play in extra innings last night in Seattle.
