Cameron

Smith

The Aussie is typically known for his standout short game but actually lost strokes around-the-green this week at LACC. He made up for it with his irons (12th on approach) and putting (3rd). This matches his previous best at the U.S. Open (2015) with six other finishes all outside of the top35 on his tournament resume. “Like I said at the start of the week, the U.S. Open typically hasn’t been a happy hunting ground for me. Probably due to lack of driver accuracy, especially the first couple of days. Really hit that driver in the fairway and give myself a lot of opportunities.” Smith should bring a lot of confidence to the table when he attempts to defend his title at The Open in a few weeks.

The Aussie finished T34 at the Masters but improved with a T9 at the PGA Championship. “The last six or seven weeks the game has started to feel like it’s really flipped a switch and has started to be in the right direction. These couple of weeks have been nice, though.” He expanded on how the driver is usually the weak link for him but said he’s starting to feel really good with the driver. Smith is opening in the +2500 to +3000 range in the outright betting market.

The Aussie enters the week with five top 10s in his last six visits to Augusta National. More recently, he’s missed the cut in two of his last five worldwide starts with a 6th-place finish and two ho-hum finishes on the LIV circuit. “I think the other thing for me is coming back to this place where I’ve had so many good memories, hit so many good shots. A lot of times, I’ve come in not feeling so good with my game and it’s kind of springboarded me into kind of a nice rest of the season.”

The home favorite lived up to the pre-tournament expectations which is often easier said than done. A few lightning delays really made him think about this one but he came out firing out of the suspensions to re-establish his name at the top of the leaderboard. “I really didn’t think I had it in me at the start of the week, I was a bit scratchy and the game has got better and better as the week went on, other than the front nine today.” Smith has now won three of the last four editions of this event with the previous two coming at RACV Royal Pines while this one took place Royal Queensland.

The young Chilean currently ranks 19th in the OWGR, slightly down from his best of 15th following the Masters this spring. He’s played four full seasons on the PGA TOUR and made it to East Lake in each of the last three. He’s piled up 10 starts in major championships but never finished better than T23 in any of those starts. His commitment to LIV will knock him out of the Presidents Cup with Cameron Smith also making the jump today, removing two of the International team qualifiers. Playing in this week’s Boston event will result in a PGA TOUR suspension for both and last week’s TOUR Championship was the last we’ll see of them on the PGA TOUR circuit, at least for the foreseeable future. Other players to make the jump to LIV Golf this week include Marc Leishman, Anirban Lahiri, Harold Varner III, and Cameron Tringale.

Smith ascended to world No. 2 after his dramatic win at St. Andrews, and he has appeared likely to switch circuits given his tepid responses to any LIV-related questions since. According to the GolfChannel.com report, Smith is expected to be joined in the field at next week’s LIV event in Boston by Cameron Tringale, Marc Leishman and Harold Varner III. Chileans Joaquin Niemann and Mito Pereira were both listed as expected defections, although they may not be in the 48-man field next week. Should the changes come to fruition, it would mean a significant blow to the International Team at next month’s Presidents Cup as Smith, Niemann and Pereira were among eight automatic qualifiers and Leishman, a four-time participant, appeared in position to be one of captain Trevor Immelman’s top selections. Should Niemann or Pereira delay their departure until after the Sept. 22-25 event they would likely be able to participate at Quail Hollow, but players teeing it up next week in Boston are expected to be barred from the PGA Tour-sanctioned team competition. Tringale, who did not qualify for the U.S. Team, confirmed Sunday that he has resigned his PGA Tour membership and will join LIV.

The Aussie dipped three spots in the FedExCup standings when he skipped the BMW Championship with hip discomfort. That put him six shots off the leader, Scottie Scheffler, to start the week. Smith was slow out of the gate with four pars and a bogey before splashing home an 8-footer for eagle at the par-5 sixth hole. He would trade four birdies with two bogeys on his homeward nine, finding himself in a share of sixth place at day’s end. Smith walked off the course ranked 10th in approach and 8th in putting. He lost strokes off-the-tee and around-the-green. Overall, he was 0.9 shots better than the field average today. That will go in the books as his third best round relative to the field at East Lake, in 13 rounds played at the Donald Ross design. That’s not the greatest track record but he’s in the best form of his life right now so you can’t rule out a low round or two before the week is over.

The Aussie has seven top 10s with three of those doubling as wins. It was a breakout season but missing last week’s BMW Championship dropped him from third to sixth in the FedExCup race. He’s back in the field this week to take on East Lake Golf Club. Smith has played the course three times and swallowed one round of 73 in each of his three visits. He’ll try to avoid extending that streak to four this week. He’ll start the week on 4-under, six shots off the FedEx No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.

It was a tough ending for the Aussie last week in Memphis as he was assessed a two-stroke penalty before the final round and then failed to mount a charge to finish outside of the top 10 on the final leaderboard. He dropped to 3rd in the FedExCup race but won’t pad those totals this week. His agent, Bud Martin, weighed in on the WD, “Cam will be unable to compete in the BMW Championship this week. He has been dealing with some on and off hip discomfort for several months and thought it best to rest this week in his pursuit of the FedExCup.” Being the FedExCup Playoffs, there will be no replacement for him in the field, dropping the field size to 68 golfers (Tommy Fleetwood, DNP).

The Aussie saw his third-round score increase by two shots before play started today, dropping him from 11-under to 9-under to start the final round. “Cameron Smith was assessed a two-stroke penalty for a breach of Rule 14.7 (playing ball from the wrong place) on hole No. 4 during the third round.” It was a tough pill to swallow for the Aussie but he was still just four shots off the lead to begin the day. He fell flat with a closing 70 to finish outside of the top 10. Smith entered as World No. 2 and second in the FedExCup race. He’ll drop to third in the FedExCup race as he readies for next week’s BMW Championship.