‘He seemed to take forever’ – Cameron Smith accuses Phil Mickelson of gamesmanship during epic LIV Golf duel

Cameron Smith has accused Phil Mickelson of resorting to gamesmanship during their titanic duel in the LIV Golf Team Championship event.

As captains of Punch and Hi-Flyers, Smith and Mickelson faced each other in the quarter-finals at Trump Doral.

The pair traded good-natured barbs during the pre-match press conference, but there was nothing friendly on the course.

After some abject play over the course of the first seven LIV events, Mickelson sparked into life during the matchplay contest with Smith.

Never more than a stroke split them over the course of the 18 holes, as Mickelson looked laser-focused – and on occasions took an age over putts.

It boiled down to a chipping and putting contest on the final hole – and it went Smith’s way when he drained a 12-footer to win the match.

The handshake between the pair could best be described as professional, and Smith felt his opponent was playing mind games on the course.

“It was a good match,” Smith said. “I think Phil maybe had some gamesmanship in there a little bit. He seemed to take forever today. I think we were three or four holes behind, so that was a bit painful. But other than that, it was good.”

Mickelson took the positives from the match and expects LIV to flourish in 2023, when 14 events will be on the schedule.

“I’m pretty surprised at how far LIV has come because there was a lot of uncertainty, like who would play in London,” Mickelson said. “You look at the strength of the league now and you have a lot of really strong players and you have a lot of really strong characters in the game. Whether you love them or hate them, there’s a lot of guys here that people want to see.

“Internationally, there’s a lot of support and desire to have tournaments. We’re having a lot of current tournaments on multiple tours coming to us wanting a LIV event, we only have 14 so it’s not like we have a lot to go around, but we’re going to have an exciting year next year with a lot of strong play and a lot of strong tournaments.”

LIV is expected to unveil its 2023 schedule in the coming weeks, with reports of a deal being struck to host an event at Valderrama – the venue for the 1997 Ryder Cup.

That would put in doubt Valderrama’s position as host for the Andalucia Masters due to the animosity between LIV and the established tours.

There are also rumours that LIV are close to finalising deals with Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, so it could be an interesting few weeks for the Saudi-funded series.