LIV Golf effect noticeable as ever at Players Championship

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida: Such are the times in golf that so much attention at The Players Championship is on a player who is not even part of the strongest field of the year.

Stranger still is the player in question is not Tiger Woods.

Cameron Smith is a reminder of the fractured world of professional golf. He is the defending champion of the PGA Tour’s premier tournament, not able to return this year because the tour has suspended him for joining Saudi-funded LIV Golf.

And it’s not just Smith.

The runner-up a year ago was Anirban Lahiri, followed by Paul Casey. They are among 36 players who have defected to LIV Golf, and they are among 17 players who were part of the windy, wild weekend at the TPC Sawgrass last year.

The Australian flag still flies outside the clubhouse in honor of the champion’s home country. Smith’s pitching wedge is on display in the clubhouse, part of the tradition for the winner to leave a club that was meaningful in his win.

But there’s no Smith — or his mullet — even though the No. 5 player in the world has lived down the street since 2016. He probably can be found this week with a rod and reel, not a wedge and a putter.

“I think it’ll be a pretty quiet week on the water,” Smith told Golf Digest two weeks ago at LIV Golf’s opening event in Mexico.

Even at the richest event on the PGA Tour — a $25 million purse with $4.5 million going to the winner — the subject of LIV Golf is never too far away.

Smith is the first defending champion to miss The Players since Woods in 2014, who was recovering from the first of five back surgeries. Woods isn’t playing this week either, deciding to rest his battered legs ahead of the Masters.

“Yes, it’s awkward,” PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said.