You’ve really got to hand it to Greg Norman. The guy is great at stealing the spotlight, even when it’s for something bad.
Attention in the golf world should be focused on the PGA Tour and those competing in The Players Championship this weekend. Instead, it’s focused on 2022 Players winner and LIV Golf defector Cameron Smith — and whether Norman is responsible for ruining his golf career.
In case you haven’t heard yet: Player-turned-analyst Brandel Chamblee skewered Norman on Golf Channel for bringing Smith to LIV Golf and essentially halting the ascension of his global golf career.
“It’s ironic to me that it might possibly be an Aussie that will keep another Aussie in Cameron Smith possibly from ascending to a spot where he’s considered the greatest [Australian] player of all time,” Chamblee told the Golf Channel, via Golf Monthly.
He added that Smith “could have easily supplanted Greg Norman as the second-best player of all time from Australia. That’s at least in my view where Cameron Smith was headed.”
Smith, 29, was in fact on track to potentially take over as the No. 1 player in the world. But his decision to join LIV Golf means he no longer qualifies for points in the official world golf ranking and can no longer participate in PGA events he won last year. It also means the young Australian isn’t able to defend his title this weekend at TPC Sawgrass — a course that went so far as to take away his playing privileges and parking spot when he left to join Norman’s breakaway league.
So, is Chamblee right? Is the Shark solely to blame for upending Smith’s professional career?
It’s a topic worthy of discussion. Putting all the blame on Norman suggests that Smith is completely incapable of making his own decisions. Perhaps Smith really believed LIV Golf would be recognized as a legitimate league by now and that he would still be competing for the top spot on the world golf ranking. Heck, maybe Norman also thought he could bully his way into getting LIV recognized as a legit league by now and that he would be on top of the golf world with a world great in Smith to promote.
It doesn’t really matter, though. At the end of the day, Smith isn’t allowed to defend his title at the Players Championship this weekend because he chose to join Norman and LIV Golf. And for that, he has no one to blame but himself.
