AUGUSTA, Ga. — Nine months ago, Cameron Smith was at the top of the golf world.

He was arguably the most relevant player in the sport.

The 29-year-old Aussie was crowned the “champion golfer of the year’’ at the “home of golf’’ when he captured the British Open in July at St. Andrews. That career-highlight victory came fewer than four months after Smith won the Players Championship.

Smith was not only The Open and Players champion, but he was the No. 2 ranked player in the world.

Two months after his Open victory, Smith joined LIV Golf for a guaranteed fee reportedly north of $100 million and has effectively lost his relevance — as all of the LIV players have because they’ve been banned by the PGA Tour and ridiculously shunned by the Official World Golf Rankings.

Weeks like this one at Augusta, where the Masters has not banned the LIV players, as well as in the other three majors, are the only ones when the LIV players perform in the biggest spotlight in the sport.

These are the choices players like Smith have made, knowing that most of the golf world, beginning with the PGA Tour and its powerful lobbying forces (which happens to include the OWGR people), has conspired to render them irrelevant.

This is why a Smith Masters victory (hardly out of the question given his success at Augusta with a tie for second, 10th and third in the last three years), or a win by one of the other LIV players this week, would be considered a massive boost for the rival tour.

“I’ve made my bed and I’m happy — very, very happy — where I am,’’ Smith said Monday. “I’m happy to sleep in the bed I’m in.’’

Smith was a refreshingly transparent interview on Monday on all things, most importantly LIV.

He was on record after not being allowed to defend his Players Championship title in March, saying it “stings’’ not to play.

On Monday, he conceded that the LIV Golf fields are not as strong or deep as many of the fields on the PGA Tour and that he misses playing in some of the events.

He, too, admitted to being concerned about how he’d be received by his former PGA Tour peers when he arrived to Augusta. Any fears of being iced were melted away quickly when he was welcomed with open arms, hugs and handshakes by fellow players.

These LIV players, despite the way the PGA Tour would like to you to perceive them, are not criminals.

They might be rendered less relevant than they used to be by the PGA Tour’s ongoing ban-and-smear campaign, but they’re not heathens.

In the case of Smith, he hasn’t helped his relevance with his faltering form in the early part of LIV’s second season, with a tie for fifth, a tie for 24th and a tie for 26th last week in Orlando.

When asked about the prospect of being irrelevant on LIV, Smith said, “For me, I’m just trying to play the best golf I can. It’s frustration when I’m playing like this on any tour. As the LIV Tour grows and the fields get deeper and stronger and all that stuff unfolds, it’s just going to be better and better. I can’t wait to see it unfold personally.’’

How much time LIV has to live and become stronger, with the millions being spent on player guarantees and purses with little revenue in return, is anyone’s guess. But a win this week by Smith or one of his fellow LIV players would go a long way toward helping their relevance.

“It’s just important for LIV guys to be up there because I think we need to be up there,’’ Smith said. “There’s a lot of chatter about ‘These guys don’t play real golf; these guys don’t play real golf courses.’

“For sure, I’ll be the first one to say the [LIV] fields aren’t as strong. But we’ve still got a lot of guys up there that can play some really serious golf. It’s a good feeling to have that competition, and it’s good to see Brooks [Koepka] win [Sunday]. He’s playing some really good golf again. Yeah, I think we just need a good, strong finish.’’

Smith called Augusta a golf course that’s “really comfy for me.’’

“I feel like the first time I came here, it wasn’t really, I guess, a nice experience,’’ he recalled. “I was a young kid [and] didn’t really feel like I belonged out here. I feel like now I show up, I’m ready to go win this thing.’’

If he does, no one will consider Smith irrelevant, regardless of what tour he plays on.