British Open champion Smith among latest players to join LIV Golf

World number two Cameron Smith, who won his first major at last month's British Open, headlined the latest group of players who have agreed to join LIV Golf, the lucrative Saudi Arabia-backed breakaway series said on Tuesday (Aug 30).

The Australian, who this year won two of the biggest events on the PGA Tour schedule having triumphed at the Players Championship as well as the British Open, is the highest-ranked player to join LIV Golf to date.

The 29-year-old, a six-time winner on the PGA Tour who has been linked to LIV Golf for weeks and refused to deny the reports, will debut in the controversial series at the Sept. 2-4 event being held at The International Golf Club outside Boston.

Smith last competed over the weekend at the PGA Tour's season-ending Tour Championship where he made US$640,000 after finishing 20th in a 29-player field a week after withdrawing from the penultimate playoff event citing hip discomfort.

LIV Golf, whose eight events this year have a total payout of $255 million, also said Australian Marc Leishman, Chile's Joaquin Niemann, India's Anirban Lahiri and Americans Harold Varner III and Cameron Tringale agreed to join the series.

Leishman is a veteran player who has earned six PGA Tour wins during his career, while 23-year-old Niemann collected his second victory on the U.S.-based circuit in February. Lahiri, Varner and Tringale have not won on the PGA Tour.

"LIV Golf is showing the world that our truly global league is attracting the world’s best players and will grow the game into the future for the next generation," Greg Norman, chief executive officer of LIV Golf, said in a news release.

"The best and the brightest continue to embrace the excitement and energy of LIV Golf and what we're building: a