Cam Smith reacts to reports of LIV Golf’s new $30M prize purse for 2026

Cam Smith recently spoke at the Cardinal at Saint John's press conference for the upcoming LIV Golf event. The 2025 Team Championship is going to be held at St. John's in Michigan. He was asked for his views on the ongoing discussions of a prize purse increase of $30 million for each week for the upcoming 2026 season. To that, Smith reacted(via ASAP Sports):

"Yeah, I don't know for sure. I think there was a little bit of a talk to increase the team payout per week. Kind of makes a little bit of sense, I guess, business-wise for the teams. We have different managers. We've all got probably between five to ten staff at the moment on most of the teams. As you can imagine, it's probably not cheap to get everyone around and all the rest of it. So I think that was the goal. I'm not sure if it's approved yet or not. I really don't know. But I think it would be a good thing for the teams business-wise going forward."

LIV Golf is increasing prize money for its events starting in 2026. According to Sports Business Journal, the purse will grow from $25 million to $30 million for each of its 13 regular-season events. Currently, each event has a $20 million prize for individual play and $5 million prize for the team competition.

In 2026, the total will rise to $30 million, with the team portion doubling to $10 million. All 54 players in each event currently earn at least $50,000 for competing in the 54-hole tournament. In the team event, only the top three teams receive money, $3 million for first place, $1.5 million for second, and $500,000 for third.

However, this money goes to the team organisations, not directly to players. It is used to cover team expenses like staff, travel, and promotion. With the new format, the $10 million team purse will be spread across all 13 teams. Apart from that, LIV Golf recently announced changes in format ahead of the Team Championship.

LIV Golf introduces format change for the 2025 LIV Golf Team Championship

Golf: LIV Golf Dallas Team Championship - Finals - Source: Imagn

LIV Golf will host its 2025 Team Championship from August 22 to 24 at The Cardinal at St. John’s Resort in Michigan. Notably, Cam Smith's Ripper GC won this event in 2024.

Ahead of this event, the league has introduced a few changes to how the tournament will be played. According to Flushing It Golf, the teams ranked 12th and 13th in the season-long standings will now compete in a special preliminary round on Wednesday, August 21. Only the winner of that game will advance, while the losing team will be out of the championship.

Another change this year is that the top-ranked teams will not get a direct entry into the semifinals. Instead, after the preliminary round, the remaining 12 teams will all take part in six quarterfinals. Team captains will still have the right to choose their opponents. On Saturday, the 12 teams will be split into two groups, the top six and the bottom six. They’ll compete in two singles and one foursomes to decide who moves forward.

The final round will feature the top three teams playing in the traditional stroke play format. All players’ scores will be added up, and the team with the lowest total will win the championship rings. The other nine teams will still compete on the final day to decide their final rankings and prize money.

Edited by pranavsethii