Cam Smith, Joaquin Niemann signings boost LIV Golf, but PGA Tour roster still superior | D'Angelo

With the PGA Tour season concluding this week at the Tour Championship, attention once again will focus on LIV Golf ... and the controversy surrounding it.

LIV's roster received a boost Tuesday when, as expected, world No. 2 Cam Smith, No. 17 Joaquin Niemann of North Palm Beach along with four others in the top 100 joined the Saudi-financed series.

Smith, the 2022 Players and Open champion; Niemann, No. 46 Harold Varner III, No. 55 Cameron Tringale of Palm Beach Gardens, No. 62 Marc Leishman and No. 92 Anirban Lahiri of Palm Beach Gardens will make their LIV debuts this week at The International outside of Boston, LIV's fourth event of its inaugural season.

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Although Tuesday's announcement was LIV's most significant since revealing its initial field, the upstart league still has a way to go to compete with the PGA Tour on talent alone.

Still, Greg Norman has put together a stronger roster than anyone expected securing 14 of the top 50 and 27 of the top 100 in this week's World Golf Rankings. That does not include Phil Mickelson, Lee Westwood and the winners of LIV's first three events - Palm Beach Gardens' Charl Schwartzel, Jupiter's Branden Grace and Henrik Stenson.

And Norman nearly poached two more in the top 20 with No. 16 Hideki Matsuyama and No. 17 Cameron Young thinking hard about making the switch. Ultimately it was the PGA Tour's sweeping changes that including several increased purses - a direct result of the threat from LIV - that convinced them to stay.

LIV may not be able to compete with the tour's 20 or so tournaments that will include most of the top-ranked players next season, but its events will stack up to many of the tour events that have struggled to draw the top players, one of those being the Honda Classic. The LIV roster is similar to what Honda has attracted the last three years.

The 48-man field essentially is set for the 14-event 2023 season. The only drama will be the makeup of the 12 four-man teams. Still, that isn't likely to switch the focus to the actual golf when it comes to LIV, especially if it does not secure a television contract.

The series has polarized sports fans and LIV has embraced jumping into the political divide with one of its most outspoken allies: former president Donald Trump, who is hosting two LIV events this season at his courses in Bedminster, N.J., and the finale Oct. 27-30 at Trump National Doral.

That along with the controversy over a league that is funded by a country with atrocious human rights violations, the insults hurled between Norman and PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan, along with golfers from both sides, and contracts reported to be north of $100 million and purses of $25 million ($50 million for the Doral event) have assured the actual golf largely being ignored.

Westwood has become the most outspoken recently with his criticism of the PGA Tour, telling Golf Digest his former peers are attempting to "copy what LIV is doing" and is filled with "hypocrites."

"Hopefully, at some point they will all choke on their words," he said. "And hopefully, they will be held to account as we were in the early days."

But the Tour had the last laugh in its season finale when Jupiter's Rory McIlroy, among the most outspoken in his loyalty for the PGA Tour and disdain for LIV, captured the season-ending Tour Championship and FedEx Cup title.

McIlroy noted that he did not lead at any point during the Tour Championship, until the 70th hole.

"The 70th hole is a nice time to take the lead of a golf tournament," he said. "Or the 52nd hole if you play somewhere else."

A shot at the LIV model of 54-hole events.

McIlroy was not done. In two weeks, several PGA Tour golfers and a handful of LIV golfers will share the stage at the DP World Tour’s flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship at the Wentworth Club in Surrey, England.

LIV golfers have not been barred from competing in DP World Tour events as they have PGA Tour events.

“It's going to be hard for me to stomach going to Wentworth in a couple of weeks' time and seeing 18 of them there," McIlroy said. "That just doesn't sit right with me.

“I feel strongly. I believe what I'm saying are the right things and I think when you believe that what you're saying are the right things, you're happy to stick your neck out on the line."

Tom D'Angelo is a journalist at the Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at tdangelo@pbpost.com. 

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: LIV Golf signees boost field, but PGA Tour roster still superior