What the PGA Tour did to LIV Golf which Vijay Singh could not understand as he says what happened to Cam Smith was ‘too much’

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Vijay Singh is clearly baffled by certain aspects of the fallout between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, especially after how Cam Smith has been treated.

Back in 2022, the landscape of professional golf completely changed, when numerous high-profile PGA Tour players jumped ship to join the newly formed Saudi-backed LIV Golf Tour.

The likes of Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau were the first ones to switch allegiances, whilst Smith made the move a few months later after the Tour Championship finished in 2022.

The Australian has three LIV wins to his name already.

Smith has insisted that he never thinks about a PGA Tour / LIV merger, and he has high hopes for the future of the Saudi-backed tour.

Interestingly, Brandel Chamblee – a fierce critic of LIV – recently suggested that he’s been told a merger between the two tours simply will not happen.

That’s bad news for golf fans the world over. We all deserve to watch the best players on the planet compete against each other more than just four times per year.

And Singh clearly agrees with that notion.

Vijay Singh doesn’t understand what PGA Tour did to LIV Golf as he criticises Cam Smith decision

Singh is one of the most successful golfers to have ever played the game.

He has three major titles on his resume – The Masters and two PGA Championships, as well as 34 PGA Tour wins and 13 DP World Tour victories.

The 62-year-old Fijian is fifth on the PGA Tour career money list with just over $71 million to his name, behind only Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Jim Furyk.

However, it is worth noting that Mickelson would be ahead of him had the PGA Tour not removed him from the list after his move to LIV.

It’s all rather petty really isn’t it!

Singh is clearly extremely knowledgable about the game, so when he speaks, golf fans are usually very interested in what he has to say.

When speaking on the What’s Your One More Podcast, the man from Fiji said:

“One thing I don’t understand is why the Tour was so much against it instead of working with them. Fighting totally. It’s like opening a new burger joint next to McDonald’s. Why can’t anybody do that? This is America. You are supposed to do whatever, as long as you don’t break the rules. They did not break any rules. The only thing they did was they paid players to come and play. So that’s what the sad thing was. Otherwise the players would not have gone.“

Singh then responded when asked what he thought about all traces of Smith being removed from the clubhouse at TPC Sawgrass:

“That was too much. He was so against the LIV Tour from the beginning. And I don’t blame him, he was supporting the players and a lot of players were against it too. But doing that was sad. The only thing that was flying was the Australia flag, but there are no photos. From what I heard also guys that are going to come back are going to get fined heavily, so they have to – I don’t know what the fine is going to be it’s not going to be one or two thousand dollars, which is sad. Monahan will be the only guy who is going to say yes if you can come back or no you cannot, which is another law suit waiting to happen! If the tours are all together, why wouldn’t [everybody get back]?“

Top five money lists in 2025 – PGA Tour vs LIV Golf

Smith has earned just over $43 million since joining LIV in August 2022 (National Club Golfer) – $16 million more than he earned after playing for four years on the PGA Tour.

However, how is the top five looking on both tours so far this season?

Aside from Rory McIlroy, those numbers are fairly similar.

However, it’s worth highlighting that they’ve only played five events so far on LIV, whilst the PGA Tour is 18 events into their 2025 season (including tournaments played during the same weeks as signature events).

And it’s clear to see that the emergence of LIV Golf has actually benefitted the PGA Tour as far as tournament purses are concerned.