Cameron Smith was once near the top of the professional golf world, but the 2022 Open Championship winner has found only pain and frustration recently on the links.
The former World No. 2 entered this week’s Australian BMW PGA Championship, a home event, hoping to snap a missed cut streak that included all four major championships this season. Smith missed the cut at last week’s Saudi International and would’ve missed the cut at the Dunhill Links had it not been shortened due to weather.
The 32-year-old opened with a two-under 69 and put himself in line to make the cut at Royal Queensland before things came undone during Friday’s second round.
Smith birdied No. 2 to get to three under, but then dropped shots at four, 11, 13, and 14 to sink below the cut line. With four holes remaining, the Ripper GC frontman needed to make a furious charge to play the weekend, but he played the final four holes in one over par to head home for the weekend.
After the second round, Smith described the shock he felt at another missed cut.
“Yep, it was s–t,” Smith said, via Golf Digest Australia’s Evin Priest. “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. I was in between clubs a lot today. Hit a couple of bad shots that I would have liked to have again. Drove the ball well … hit a lot of nice shots. Tough lies killed me today … and then couldn’t get up and down.”
Cam Smith is known for his laidback personality, but it’s clear that the golfing rut he finds himself in has taken its toll.
“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. I’ve tried to do all the right stuff, for whatever reason it’s not coming together on the course.”
Smith’s search to rediscover his game will continue at next week’s Australian Open at Royal Melbourne’s Composite course. It’s a search that fellow Australian Adam Scott believes can come to a quick end. In golf, one swing can spark a run.
“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?” Smith said, via Priest. “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.”
