Australia's Cameron Smith is hoping for reconciliation in golf's bitter civil war.

He dreams for the free movement of players between the 'establishment' PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Greg Norman's 'rebel' LIV Golf league, and for LIV Golf to be awarded Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points.

But according to the 29-year-old Queenslander who is in Saudi Arabia to contest the LIV Golf Invitational Jeddah at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club, he couldn't tell you when - or even if - these things will happen, however, because of those who "own" golf.

"[Reconciliation] is definitely the way it's gone in other sports [such as Indian Premier League, Super League and World Series Cricket]," Smith told AAP.

"But it seems like this is going to be different, for some reason. I feel like golf is owned by a group of people and that it's going to be hard to get it across the line."

Smith is referring to the PGA Tour which banned him and other LIV players when they signed with the startup. LIV Golf's quest for legitimacy and for their stars to qualify for major championships by playing their way into the world top-50 hinges on rules governed by people whose hegemony appears directly threatened by the Saudi-backed interloper. Representatives of the PGA Tour sit on the OWGR board.

The British Open champion agreed when it was put to him that there appears to be inherent conflict of interest and that the established tours fear LIV Golf.

"Yeah, I think that's probably the right way to put it. But I don't see how it benefits professional golf to have a league of players like us ... who aren't getting world ranking points," Smith said.

"It's very bizarre and doesn't offer a lot of credit to the ranking system if the best players in the world aren't getting points."

Before last week's event in Bangkok - won by 22-year-old Spaniard Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra who pocketed $7.4 million after turning professional four months ago - LIV Golf made the audacious play of partnering with the obscure Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Tour because it has official status and 54-hole tournaments.

The MENA Tour immediately declared all 48 LIV Golf players to be members and for LIV Golf's Bangkok and Jeddah tournaments to be official, MENA-aligned, OWGR points-earning tournaments.

A senior LIV Golf official told AAP that it "ticked all the boxes".

OWGR begged to differ, saying in a statement: "Notice of these changes given by the MENA Tour is insufficient to allow OWGR to conduct the customary necessary review."

Smith played in the 2022 Saudi International and finished tied-4th behind American Harold Varner III. Eight months later he returns in vastly different circumstances.

"I'm definitely not a politician and I'm far from the smartest guy on LIV league ... but I guess it (criticism of playing in Saudi Arabia) is a little bit ironic.

"We're here trying to grow the game of golf, create different pathways for a lot of different guys. I think it's a bit unfair to say there's only one or two tours that you can make a career on.

"[LIV Golf] is just a different thing. As time goes on it'll be perceived in a different way and we can move and start playing golf."