Red-hot Australian star Lucas Herbert confirmed his manager had reached out to the PGA Tour about a possible return with the future of LIV in doubt.

But Herbert’s Ripper GC team captain, Cam Smith, has made “no effort” to seek any playing future outside LIV despite bankruptcy rumours lingering over this week’s tournament in New York.

Team title winners from the last LIV event in the UK, the all-Australian Ripper GC members including Marc Leishman and Travis Smyth were hit with questions about theirs and the league’s future ahead of a crunch meeting with CEO Scott O’Neil.

Amid various reporting about the potential for new investors putting in as much as $450 million to save LIV, after the Saudi Public Investment Fund ended its billions of dollar investment, the Australians were in the dark about the future.

It’s also been reported that the season-ending championship in Michigan had already been cancelled, and some LIV staff had been told their employment would end in September.

Smith, though, said he was a “positive guy” and that while he’d like to go back to the PGA Tour if it was the “only option” it wasn’t something he was currently considering.

“I don't really understand what is going to happen. I think it's all up in the air. I know that the LIV team is working hard to get us to play next year and working hard for us. They do a lot of hard work behind the scenes,” he said.

Ripper GC captain Cam Smith. Pic: Getty.

“I want it to work, really, to be honest. It's great fun out here. The team that we've got, I feel like we make each other better, better people and better golfers as well. Yeah, I'd hate to see it go away. We'll see what happens.

“But at the moment we're preparing to keep playing and keep the team alive.”

Herbert, a dominant individual winner at the last event in the UK following on from his top-10 finish at the Open Championship, said his manager had sought playing alternatives.  

“I haven't personally had any discussions but I think my manager has,” he said.

“If LIV were to go away and you've got nowhere to play, I think ultimately you need somewhere to play as a professional golfer. So we're just doing due diligence, having that conversation.

“As I said, I haven't had it personally, and my preference would be to still be playing out here if that was still an option.

“Yeah, I think conversations have been had without me being privy to them. I don't know the results of any of those either. Yeah, that's my update.”

Lucas Herbert has been on fire. (Photo by Jason Butler/Getty Images)

Smith said he was contracted through until the end of 2027, although there’s some doubt about LIV’s capacity to honour those contracts.

Instead it’s been mooted that players would take equity shares in their teams and Smith said he remained invested in what LIV and Ripper especially has been able to do and it would be a “shame” not to continue.   

“I was expecting to play until the end of next year and renegotiate and hopefully go on,” he said.

“What we've been able to do for golf in Australia is really quite important to me, junior golf, the Little Rippers, the event that we have down there, the people it brings out to showcase our great league. It would be a shame for all that to go away, and I feel like we've worked really hard over the last three or four years to kind of make that all happen.

“Yeah, like I said, Australian golf is important to me. I think it improves it. I think all the numbers are up. The memberships are up. Social play is up. I think that's in part because of us. So I think it would be a shame for Australian golf if it did go away.”

Leishman also said he was “confident there will be something next year” and had not looked elsewhere.

“The team is working really hard, and I would certainly like to be here next year for sure, whether it looks how it does now or something different,” he said.

“I would assume if it is around it'll be something a little different, but I'm invested in this.”

A LIV 2.0 could see as few as 10 tournaments with significantly reduced purses form the current $20m on offer each event.

Smith also said he was planning as if the team championship was being played, until he heard otherwise.   

“I feel like we're well-informed, but I feel like a lot of it is still up in the air,”  he said.

“We don't know.

“But at the moment we're preparing to keep playing and keep the team alive.”