When announcing the new Australasian Tour schedule for the summer of 2021/22 (details HERE) PGA of Australia CEO Gavin Kirkman made it clear that any LIV event played in this country will not distract the local circuit from its focus on player pathways via the DP World Tour.

"We haven't been approached and we're hearing things are going on but at the end of the day that will be like they're being played in the UK and played in the States,” Kirkman said of the event that is rumoured to be taking place in April.

"If that event comes to Australia, we'll just continue to focus on what we do best and that's running our Tour and service Australian golf in the way we feel it should be serviced, working with Golf Australia, the WPGA and we'll just see what happens there.

Like much of the rest of the world, opinion on LIV, the PGA Tour and the ongoing saga is divided in Australia, and Kirkman reiterated an internal focus on the Australian Tour events and existing partnerships when pressed on whether more tournament golf in this country benefited fans.

RIGHT: Depsite public disappointment in his role from the likes of Karrie Webb, Greg Norman's name will still adorn Australia's best player medal in 2022. PHOTO: Matthew Lewis/Getty Images.

“It's something we can't control. I can't control what LIV Golf are going to do. You can see globally no one can control what they're doing at the moment,” he told a group of Australian reporters this week.

"We're going to have fans with mixed opinions. Some people are going to love it and some people aren't going to love it but, if it comes to Australia, we've got to be in a position that we focus on our strategies.

"If it fits in, it fits in. But we'll talk closely to Golf Australia and the WPGA Tour and just work on what we keep working on.”

"If it's a golf event, at some stage they're going to get fans there.

"Is it going to be good for the game? What I don't want – and what I don't like to hear about and read about at the moment – is people arguing what's good for the game and what's not.”

Another regular discussion point that hits close to home has been the bans placed on LIV golfers by the PGA Tour, including reigning Australian Open champion Matt Jones who this week lost a court battle to play the FedExCup Playoffs.

The DP World Tour also instituted suspensions for co-sanctioned events that were successfully challenged in court earlier this year. And despite the Australasian Tour’s association with both circuits, players on the Norman run circuit will be free to play at home.

“Every Tour has their regulations and players have been banned from those big Tours because they're in breach of their regulations,” Kirkman said. “We're not making up the rules as we go. So before it all got reached out, we exchanged our regulations, which we're involved with, and the regulations sit underneath the constitution and the players coming home to play, as long as there's no conflicting event, they'll be welcome to play.

"If that event comes to Australia, we'll just continue to focus on what we do best and that's running our Tour and service Australian golf in the way we feel it should be serviced, working with Golf Australia, the WPGA and we'll just see what happens there." - Gavin Kirkman.

"The Australian players have come home and wherever they're playing at the moment, if they're members of our organisation, they'll be eligible to play and that's been discussed with other tours.”

One of those players could well be Cameron Smith who has been reported by The Telegraph in the London as joining LIV after the PGA Tour season is complete. Smith issued a stern no comment earlier this week when pressed on the issue and bristled that fellow Tour pro Cameron Percy had said he was “gone” when appearing on RSN radio in Victoria.

Whether Smith does make the jump or not remains to be seen, but after his Open Championship and The Players Championship victories he alongside Minjee Lee are the contenders for Australian golf’s highest individual prize, that will remain named after Greg Norman, who has become one of the most controversial figures in the game.

"The Greg Norman Medal for 2022 commenced at the start of the year so all the players, men and women, that's an honour now that we've had going for six years. So to change the name of a medal mid-season, I don't think that's appropriate and no one's going to win there,” Kirkman said of the award.

There was no commitment beyond the current season as to the name of the medal, with perhaps some discomfort in the ranks of Australian golf after Karrie Webb, for whom the WPGA Championship trophy is now named, publicly expressed her disappointment in Norman for his role in LIV Golf.

"The little girl in me just died well and truly!! Has anyones (sic) childhood hero disappointed them as much as I am now??" Webb tweeted earlier this year.