Despite speculation that the LIV Golf League won't play its scheduled team and individual championships in Michigan later this month, Ripper GC captain Cameron Smith said Tuesday that he's preparing for the season-ending tournament to take place.
Smith, talking to reporters ahead of this week's LIV Golf tournament at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, said the league hasn't told him the final tournament of the season won't be played.
"We've been told to prepare as though it's going ahead," Smith said. "So, we're expecting it to happen. I'm really unsure, but we had a great year there last year in Detroit, and we're hoping we get back there. It's a great golf course, a great venue, and the crowds really turned up as well. Yeah, [I] would be disappointed if it wasn't."
LIV Golf is scheduled to play Aug. 20-23 at The Club at Chatham Hills in Westfield, Indiana.
The team and individual championship, which has a combined $50 million purse, is slated to take place the following week at The Cardinal at Saint John's in Plymouth, Michigan.
A source with knowledge of the league's plans previously told ESPN that LIV Golf wouldn't announce whether the team and individual championship would be played until after this week's tournament, which is being held at a course owned by U.S. President Donald Trump.
A spokesperson for the Pulte Family Charitable Foundation, which owns The Cardinal at Saint John's, declined to comment when contacted by ESPN.
"We're expecting to play," said Smith, who won last year's tournament at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster. "Hopefully, we get there. I know we've got a player meeting [Tuesday] afternoon, so I'm sure we'll hear a little bit more. But as it stands right now, all I can comment on is we're expecting to play."
When Smith was asked whether he'd contacted the PGA Tour about possibly rejoining his former circuit, the 2022 Open Championship winner said he's under contract with LIV Golf through the 2027 season.
"I'm contracted to the end of next year, so I was expecting to play until the end of next year and renegotiate and hopefully go on," Smith said.
LIV Golf CEO Scott O'Neil is seeking $250 million to $300 million to keep the league alive after Saudi Arabia's Public Investment announced April 30 that it would no longer finance the league. The PIF reportedly spent more than $5 billion funding the league the past five seasons, with much of the money being used to pay guaranteed contracts worth more than $100 million to star golfers such Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Smith and others.