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When the R&A dropped its feature groups for the 151st Open Championship, one name was surprisingly left off — defending champ, Cam Smith.
Cameron Smith took home the Claret Jug in epic fashion last year. As he attempts to defend his title, Smith surprisingly isn’t in a featured group for the 151st Open Championship.
Did the R&A purposefully shun their current Champion Golfer of the Year? Does his LIV Golf status affect his ability to be in a featured group?
The Open’s website doesn’t have much advertising about Smith either. The event tweeted about him earlier, but it’s been pretty slim for the defending champion.
They’ve done a great job highlighting former Open champ Rory McIlroy, who won at Royal Liverpool in 2014. Tommy Fleetwood has gotten a lot of love as well.
Why hasn’t Smith gotten more attention? The R&A was one of the first governing bodies of golf to allow LIV Golf players into the majors. That decision makes sense because Smith is their defending champion.
Now that The Open is here, Smith appears to get the silent treatment. Not having your defending champion in a featured group seems like a stance. The R&A doesn’t have the PGA Championship winner, Brooks Koepka, in a featured group either.
Koepka, of course, also being a member of the LIV Golf Tour.
Is this LIV situation so upsetting that the R&A cannot even include two of the best golfers in the world in their featured coverage? Instead, their featured groups are Jordan Spieth, Matt Fitzpatrick and Jason Day. The second morning group is Scottie Scheffler, Fleetwood and Adam Scott.
These two seem understandable. Scheffler is No. 1 in the world, and Fleetwood is from Liverpool. But the group of Spieth, Fitzpatrick and Day is a curious one that easily could have had the defending champion in it instead.
In the afternoon wave of coverage, Tony Finau, Viktor Hovland and Justin Thomas make up the first featured group. McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Justin Rose make up the second one.
McIlroy, Hovland, Rose and Rahm make sense. However, Finau and Thomas don’t. It’s not taking anything away from those two, but Smith and Koepka would have made for a much better option. Thomas hasn’t played well most of the season, so featuring him in the last major is a bold choice.
Maybe the R&A will feature Smith at least on Friday before the cut is made.
