Rory Had Conversation With Smith Over LIV Move

It's expected that five or more big names will make the move to the LIV Golf Series once the Tour Championship comes to a close this week. The big one is Open champion Cam Smith whose name has been front and centre over any speculation in the past few months.

It's the biggest get that LIV Golf will have managed - a major champion at the top of their game - and he will likely spearhead an Aussie team that will capture plenty of headlines going forward.

In his pre-tournament press conference Rory McIlroy offered this nugget, pretty much from nowhere, about how he had tried to put the Aussie very much in the picture over the PGA Tour's grand new plans which were announced this week.

Smith, as expected, was not part of last week's players' meeting – most likely due to his likely LIV involvement as much as the fact that he was injured.

"I had a conversation with Cameron Smith two days after the Open, and firstly, I wanted to congratulate him, but also I wanted – guys that are thinking one way or another, honestly I don't care if they leave or not. It's not going to make a difference to me. But I would at least like people to make a decision that is completely informed and basically know this is what's coming down the pipeline. This is what you may be leaving behind," explained McIlroy.

"I just don't want people making decisions – hearing information from one side and not from another. So I think that's sort of been my whole thing this entire time. I've always said guys can do whatever they want. Guys can make a decision that they feel is best for themselves and their families. But I want guys to make decisions based on all of the facts. Sometimes I don't think some guys made those decisions based on having all the facts in front of them."

This is interesting given that most of us think that Smith has already signed up with LIV. It was also widely reported that Hideki Matsuyama will not be moving to LIV... we'll find out more next week.