LIV boss Greg Norman is accused of ruining Cam Smith’s chance to become the greatest Aussie golfer

Greg Norman is being accused of robbing Cameron Smith of the chance to forge one of golf’s greatest careers after luring the British Open champion into his Saudi-backed rogue league.

Polarized analyst Brandel Chamblee compared Smith’s short game magic to that of legends Seve Ballesteros and Tom Watson, saying the Aussie was looking for a path to multiple major championship wins after his reign at St Andrews last July.

Instead, Smith can’t even defend his title at this week’s prestigious Players Championship in Florida after being suspended from the PGA Tour.

Smith lives in Jacksonville Beach, 10 minutes from Players Stadium, and is a fishing friend of range superintendent Jeff Plotts, but is persona non grata at TPC Sawgrass after, Chamblee says, being cheated on by his idol Norman.

“It’s ironic to me that it’s possibly an Australian that will prevent another Australian in Cameron Smith from ascending to the place where he is considered the greatest player of all time (from Australia),” Chamblee told the Golf Channel.

‘Impersonating Peter Thomson, he had that kind of talent.

‘Norman didn’t get there, but (Smith) could have easily supplanted Greg Norman as Australia’s second-best player of all time. That is, at least in my opinion, where Cameron Smith was headed.

“That’s what he’s turned his back on and a lot of it has to do with Greg Norman, and Cam Smith got a lot of bad advice from his agents and other people in the game around him trying to suck him into LIV.”

Chamblee misses watching Smith play on the PGA Tour.

“He had the potential to be an absolute great player,” he said.

Brandel Chamblee believes Smith (pictured) received a lot of bad advice before agreeing to switch to the Rebel tour in a move that earned him a $150 million bonus.

“If you look at the qualities he had, the age he was, he was a great scrambler, and likely (still), a great scrambler, a great putter, a great shot maker.”

‘Players like Tom Watson come to mind. At the age of 25 until (Watson) turned 35, had 35 wins, won eight major championships, really caught up with him at 27, which is what Cam Smith had last year.

‘Twenty-seven, 28, 29, five wins, five wins, five wins in each of those years. Seven wins when he was 30 years old, these best years.

And when you think of Seve Ballesteros, from 22 to 31 he won five majors.

“He set the world on fire and was pretty much the same type of player we saw in Cameron Smith last year at St Andrews.

“These are exciting players: coders, they’re unpredictable, they break your heart, and then they do monumentally amazing things.”

Smith, still ranked No. 5 in the world despite receiving no ranking points playing LIV Golf, remains eligible to contest all four annual majors for at least five years.

The analyst worries that not playing against the world’s best on a regular basis will leave Smith and other LIV stars far behind in the majors.

But Chamblee fears that Queenslander, and other LIV stars like former Masters champion Dustin Johnson, will lack a competitive edge at Augusta National next month for the first major of the season.

“You can’t convince me that playing week after week against the best players in the best competitions doesn’t make you sharper,” he said.

“Think about where they will be a week before the Masters, usually the best players in the world in the week before the Masters, get an idea of ​​how the golf course is playing and then maybe go home and practice in similar conditions.” with similar grasses.

‘(LIV players) are going to be in Orlando at Crooked Cat, putting up grainy Bermuda.

“It’s not the way to prepare for a big championship.”