Former major champion Ian Baker-Finch says LIV Golf Invitational Series are talking to his fellow Australian Cameron Smith but has urged the newly-minted British Open winner to resist the advances of the Saudi-backed circuit.
Smith reacted angrily when he was asked about the possibility he might join the breakaway series after he won the Claret Jug at St Andrews on Sunday, saying his management team dealt with “that stuff”.
“I know that they’re talking to him and to many others, I hope he doesn’t because I think he can leave a great legacy by winning major championships and becoming the best player in the world,” Baker-Finch told Melbourne’s 3AW radio.
“I don’t think he needs the money, I don’t think it’s going to be something he should do. It’s his decision, he’ll be a $100 million guy or more if he did go. Does he want to win more majors or does he want the money?
“I’m hoping that he stays and leaves a great legacy. I think Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy and a lot of those guys that still compete and play well in majors and want to win majors and want to leave a legacy, they’re the guys I’d be following.”
Baker-Finch, who won his only major at the 1991 British Open at Royal Birkdale, also slammed the divisive way the new series had taken on the establishment.
Baker-Finch says he is more concerned about the potential impact on young golfers.
“The guys who go join LIV are going to miss out on the grind, what it takes to be a champion, to play in the great tournaments against the great players,” he said.
“It’s hard work and you’re not going to be a better player by going and playing 54-hole exhibition matches and getting paid 150-grand to finish last.”
Meanwhile the ashes of five-times British Open champion Peter Thomson were scattered on the 18th green of the Old Course at St Andrews hours before Australian Cameron Smith’s stunning triumph at the 150th edition of the major.
Thomson’s son Andrew revealed on social media that he had performed the ceremony on Sunday morning to fulfill a promise he made to his parents when the Australian golfing great died at the age of 88 in 2018.
Far from diminishing the timing of the ceremony, Thomson junior suggested it was a “significant” coincidence that Smith went on to wipe out a four-shot deficit over the final round and clinch his first major title at the home of golf.
“I was sitting there stunned,” Thomson told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“I couldn’t believe what had happened. Smith played perfect golf, all credit to him. But what a coincidence that the ashes of a former, five-time champion, also an Australian, had been sprinkled there that morning?
“Smith’s win was a very rare event, to see someone as competent and confident as Rory McIlroy overtaken. McIlroy didn’t collapse, he was just surpassed.”
Thomson senior won the Claret Jug five times between 1954 and 1965, his second triumph coming at the 84th championship at St Andrews in 1955.
While the most of Thomson’s ashes remain in Melbourne, his son has also scattered small quantities on the greens at the venues of his other Open triumphs - Royal Birkdale, Royal Liverpool and Royal Lytham & St Annes.