Cameron Smith Left Out of Featured Group at The Open, and LIV Supporters are Not Happy

The Open Championship announced its featured groups for the first two days of the tournament at Royal Liverpool. These are the groups that will be followed by TV cameras throughout the opening two rounds of the event.

Conspicuous by his absence is not only defending champion Cameron Smith, but no LIV Golf members in attendance at Hoylake are in these featured groups.

🚨#LIV BLACKOUT ❌ — The R&A goes with 0 LIV golfers for the featured group coverage on Thursday at The Open. pic.twitter.com/HaIMPAVNeI

— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) July 18, 2023

The defending champion is typically in a featured group, but that’s not the case this year. Smith left the PGA Tour after last year’s Tour Championship to join the LIV circuit, where he’s won twice since joining. That includes a win two weeks ago in London.

Other fans noted that Smith wasn’t even advertised on the official website of the Open Championship.

After the criticism on Twitter, the official account for the tournament did post some content with Smith during his practice round.

The defending Champion Cam Smith predicts a testing week at @RLGCHoylake.

What will be the winning score? pic.twitter.com/zEHAFhZU3q

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 19, 2023

Along with Smith, other LIV members playing this week include Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, and Phil Mickelson.

In their defense, R&A CEO Martin Slumbers did say that they opened the qualification process further this year in order to give more LIV Golf pros a chance to reach the Open through qualifiers.

Sergio Garcia was one of those, but he failed to qualify and is missing the event for the first time since 1997.

Cover Image via CBS Sports