[PHOTO: LIV Golf]
Cameron Smith is rejuvenated after strong showing at LIV Golf UK that was only held back by rustiness in his usually elite short game, but the major winner is hungry to finish off the LIV season strong before making his way back to the Australian summer of golf.
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Smith was licking his wounds after missing the cut at the Open Championship last week to ensure early exits from all four majors this year. That result at Royal Portrush was puzzling given how well the Queenslander drove the ball and struck his irons this week at the tricky JCB Golf & Country Club in the English Midlands.
It was like watching two different golfers. Smith shot 68, 70 over the first two days before a closing 67 that looked for a brief period as though it was shaping up to be a final-day 62 only for a litany of errors from 100 metres and in. He finished outright 10th at eight-under-par and a distant nine shots behind Joaquin Niemann (17-under), who won his fifth LIV event of the season by three shots over Bubba Watson.
“It was really solid this week,” Smith told Australian Golf Digest. “I left a lot of shots out there, which is frustrating but it’s good to see the long game, particularly, heading where it should be.”
Smith was in the top 10 in the driving accuracy stats this week with 66 percent of fairways found while he was top eight in approach play having hit 72 percent of greens in regulation.
His usually world-beating short game let him down at JCB, ranking outside the top 35 given he only saved par nine of 15 times he missed the greens.
“I’ll tidy up a bit of short game stuff, to be honest because I left a few out there and I could have holed a few more putts,” Smith said. “Without doing anything too crazy, I could have been right up there [pushing Niemann]. But I’m still really happy with how the how the driver and the long game played for me. I’ll have a good a week off and just tidy everything up again and on to Chicago [the next LIV tournament in two weeks].”
Marc Leishman, the only Australian to make last week’s cut at Portrush among nine compatriots in the field, carried his form back onto LIV with a T-11 at seven-under. Having advanced through 36-hole qualifying for the US Open in June, and then coming over the pond for two LIV events and The Open, Leishman was happy with his level of focus throughout a busy stretch of golf.
“Yeah, I’m actually playing really well and I’ve played a lot of golf this last couple of months, so I’m happy that I stayed in it mentally this week,” Leishman told Australian Golf Digest. “Years gone by, my third or fourth event in a row, or at the end of a long spell, I have struggled staying in it mentally.
“I would have liked to finish off today a little better, 16 and 17 were tough holes that I made bogey on which is frustrating because I could have snuck into that top five, but still a good week. Happy with how things are looking for last three events and rest of the year.”
Rounding out Ripper GC, Lucas Herbert two-under and Matt Jones even-par.