The merger between the PGA Tour and Saudi-backed LIV Golf is yet to be enacted despite striking a deal more than a year ago.

Held up by roadblocks, it now appears that a union will not happen before the leagues’ 2025 schedules kick off.

But Australian stars Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith are seemingly not interested in the changes that unification would bring.

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Speaking ahead of the Australian PGA Championship, the pair expressed their delight with LIV’s 14-event schedule which has provided players more downtime to spend with family and friends.

Able to split more time between America and Australia, Leishman declared that his life has never been better after defecting to LIV Golf in August 2022.

“The fields are just so good every week. You’re playing against some really good players and it’s hard to win out there,” Leishman told media at Royal Queensland Golf Club on Tuesday.

“Obviously, that’s a box I’d like to tick, to win on LIV individually.

“I’ve put it down as a pretty good year on the golf course and off the golf course, it’s probably the happiest I’ve ever been.

“It’s been the best year of my life.

“Getting to spend so much time with my kids, they came to a few tournaments and those that they came to I played really well. Travelling around with seven or eight of us, eating out for dinner and having fun every night, I’ve really enjoyed that about it.

“Playing some good golf and winning as a team — it’s very rare in golf that you get to actually celebrate with other people when you win who are equally as happy as you are, and that’s the cool thing about what we get to do now.

“We’ve had some memorable nights out and made some great memories all around.”

Both players were also full of praise for LIV Golf’s unique team format with reports from the LIV and PGA Tour talks indicating the LIV events will remain.

Leishman and Smith, along with fellow Australians Lucas Herbert and Matt Jones, won the LIV Golf team crown with Ripper GC.

Having featured in two local events, Smith confessed he has been paying close attention to the young talent on the PGA Tour of Australasia and would be open to drafting a few to Ripper GC.

“It’s been awesome to see,” Smith said of the up-and-comers he has come up against in recent weeks.

“For me, being a franchise owner, it’s something that you look at, young guys coming through.

“It’s been really cool to see because we don’t get to see that very often and being so far away all the time, sometimes you don’t even really get to look at the scores.

“It’s been cool to play with them, see how they compete and get a few ideas in the head.”