![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://sportyjones.com/golf/liv-golf-began-to-deliver-what-the-saudis-dreamed-of-one-year-on-amid-pga-tour-merger-and-mockery-like-it-or-not-the-circuit-claims-its-not-going-anywhere/&media=https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/08/14/18/74303325-0-image-m-23_1692035224005.jpg&description="Cameron Smith wins as Mickelson melts down in LIV tournament."){kind=link}
A final day duel between Cameron Smith and Phil Mickelson looked set to play out on the fairways of Trump National Bedminster. Two of golf’s biggest names battling it out on a Sunday, anyone would think it was the PGA Tour. Except it wasn’t, this was golf but louder.
Last year, Bedminster hosted LIV‘s third ever tournament with new defector Henrik Stenson winning his first event on the breakaway circuit and the future of the breakaway uncertain. The majority of golf fans believed it wouldn’t survive to see another year amid its war with the PGA Tour.
But a year on, it returned to Donald Trump‘s New Jersey course for its 11th tournament of its second season, with Smith’s ultimate victory and Mickelson’s meltdown off the back of Bryson DeChambeau’s 58 the previous week providing the entertaining plotline the Saudis have paid for.
The future of LIV is still unclear with…