Cam Smith missed the cut by four shots at the Australian PGA Championship, extending his difficult season to seven missed cuts including all four majors
Cam Smith endured a miserable return to Royal Queensland Golf Club(Image: Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
Adam Scott and Min Woo Lee are rallying behind fellow Aussie Cam Smith, whose nightmarish season on the LIV Golf tour has taken a turn for the worse.
The 2022 Open Champion didn’t make it past the weekend at the Australian PGA Championship in his home state of Queensland, shooting a 75 in Friday’s second round and missing the cut by four strokes. The former world No. 2 has missed the weekend in all seven cut events he has played this season, including the four major championships.
Smith, 32, also had a subpar season on LIV by his high standards, with just one top-five finish to his name in 13 events. His dramatic decline has become one of the hot topics in the sport this year.
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He hoped to turn things around with a return to his homeland, where he will also play in next week’s Australian Open at Royal Melbourne. Instead, he suffered another brutal result, and his season of disappointment continued.
But Scott and Lee, who played with Smith on the PGA Tour before he made the leap to LIV, have backed their countryman to overcome his woes and return to the peak of his powers.
“Yeah, absolutely,” 2013 Masters champion Scott said. “He’s got an incredible, incredible short game to lean into and actually that kind of gets a little neutralised here [at Royal Queensland] because it’s pretty grainy and even as great as he is [with wedges], it’s kind of not helping him as much as it would if he was having an off day with the ball-striking.
“When you’re as good as he is, of course he can, and it’s one swing, one chip, one putt here or there, and the momentum changes and the confidence can grow quickly in a hole or two, you know? It’s just putting four good swings and two putts together in a row and sometimes it’s really hard to do that, but that’s how it turns around and I’ve no doubt he can.”
Former PGA Tour champion Lee anticipates Smith will be motivated to silence his critics when he competes at Royal Melbourne next week.
Adam Scott has had his say(Image: Getty)
“Yeah, I mean that’s golf,” Lee remarked regarding Smith’s difficulties. “It can be tough, and I think [Smith] is one of the best players out here and there is pressure. I feel like I’m one of the home favorites, but you still got to play really good golf.
“He didn’t have his best stuff, but next week he’s going to come out good. I think it’s just a bit of a fire in his belly over this weekend. I’m sure he’s going to head down [to Melbourne] and grind and then show something next week.”
Both Lee and Scott remain in the hunt for victory on home turf this Sunday. Lee sits tied for fourth at 12-under-par, trailing 54-hole leaders David Puig, Ricardo Gouveia and Anthony Quayle by just one stroke. Scott finds himself one shot further behind in a tie for sixth position.
Smith, however, will be forced to observe the proceedings from the sidelines, and he didn’t mince words when assessing his showing. “Yep, it was s—,” he informed reporters.
“If you had have told me that was going to happen this morning, when I was warming up, I’d have told you otherwise. I don’t know, I just don’t know. I am so confused. I was feeling good, really confident and just couldn’t get anything going. It was weird.
“It can definitely get in your head, I think it is in my head; It’s just frustrating,” Smith said. “It’s been my story of the year, feel I’ve worked hard all year and got nothing out of it. I do know what the answer is, it’s just to keep working hard and try to be patient.”