Cameron Smith is playing European Tour events in France, chasing competitive rounds ahead of the Australian summer — but the bigger question hanging over the 2022 British Open champion is what his long-term future on the LIV Golf circuit actually looks like. The 33-year-old Queensland golfer, currently based in Florida, is at a crossroads that will define the next chapter of his career, with his five-year major exemption from his Claret Jug victory set to expire in 2027.
Smith was a late and somewhat surprising addition to the field at Le Golf National outside Paris this week, joining former US Open winner Matt Fitzpatrick and Tommy Fleetwood at the French Open on the European Tour. It was, by his own admission, a first — he had never set foot in France before this trip.
"Mate, I had never even been to France before this week," Smith said, answering the phone from Versailles with a laugh and a cheerful "Bonjour."
Unfortunately, the French adventure didn't finish as Smith would have hoped. He missed the cut after carding two-over par across two rounds, undone by a pair of double-bogeys in his final three holes.
Staying Sharp for an Australian Open Dream
The Paris detour is part of a broader strategy to stay match-ready during a significant lull in his schedule. The LIV Golf season wrapped up in late August, leaving a roughly three-month gap before the Australian summer swing gets underway. Smith has been using a handful of late-year events to maintain his competitive edge.
"I put the clubs down for a couple of weeks, then had a couple of really solid weeks practising," said Smith, who has now shifted focus to getting into tournament mode. "I'd love to knock off the Aussie Open. That's kind of why I'm here."
It is a goal that has eluded Smith despite coming agonisingly close. He has finished runner-up at the Australian Open twice, most recently suffering a heartbreaking final-hole bogey at Royal Melbourne last year that cost him the title. Winning on home soil remains one of the most compelling items left unchecked on his golfing bucket list.
The Presidents Cup He Cannot Play
While Smith was working on his French swing, some 7,000 kilometres away in Chicago, the International team — a side he starred for back in 2019 — was squaring off against the United States at the Presidents Cup. Smith, like other LIV golfers, is barred from the PGA Tour-run biennial event.
Close friends Adam Scott, making a remarkable 12th Presidents Cup appearance for the Internationals, and British Open champion Ryan Fox, who is debuting for the team, are among those competing without him.
"I've definitely accepted it," Smith said of his Presidents Cup exclusion. "I knew that was one of the downsides to going to LIV, and I've fully accepted that. I sent Scotty a message congratulating him on a great week at Wentworth, and wishing him the best for the Presidents Cup. I'd love to see him win one."
It is a measured, if wistful, acknowledgement of the trade-offs that came with his reported signing bonus of more than $200 million when he joined LIV in 2022, shortly after claiming the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass and the British Open at St Andrews in the same extraordinary year.
A Slump in the Majors and Signs of Life
Life on LIV has had its complications beyond the political and competitive exclusions. After posting career-best results at the 2023 US Open, where he finished fourth, and the 2023 PGA Championship, where he tied for ninth, Smith's form in the majors deteriorated sharply. He missed six consecutive major cuts — a run stretching from the 2024 British Open through to this year's Masters — a stretch that drew pointed criticism from observers who pointed to his LIV switch as a contributing factor.
Now ranked 142nd in the world, Smith is philosophical but clearly motivated to silence the doubters. "Every sportsperson in history has been criticised for something," he said. "I know I haven't played my best golf the last couple of years. It eats at you a little bit, and you try to get out of the slump."
There are, at least, some encouraging signs. In May, he was in contention deep into the PGA Championship outside Philadelphia before finishing tied for seventh — a result that suggests the worst of the slump may be behind him.
Off the course, Smith has reinvested in the game that made him. He runs an annual scholarship that flies two junior Australian golfers to the United States for a week of training with him, and LIV built a successful Adelaide event around his popularity in his home country.
The Clock Is Ticking on His Major Future
The central issue Smith must now navigate is structural. His British Open exemption — which has granted him automatic entry into all four majors — expires in 2027. Without it, he must compete on a tour that offers direct pathways into the major championships. At present, future uncertainty is a theme familiar to many elite athletes navigating bans and exclusions, and Smith's situation is no different in its complexity.
LIV does not currently offer those major pathways in the same way the PGA Tour or DP World Tour do. Whether that changes — through ongoing negotiations involving Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund and the wider golf ecosystem — will go a long way to determining whether Smith stays put or charts a different course.
For now, he is playing French Open events he has never entered before, dreaming of an Australian Open he has never won, and waiting on answers that have not yet arrived.
"We need a few more answers," is the unspoken reality hanging over one of Australia's most talented and controversial golfing exports. The next 12 months will likely force those answers into the open.
