Cameron Smith, the man on the rise
This season Aussie Cameron Smith has taken the leap from being a very good golfer to becoming a great golfer. He has won three times, including a major, and risen to No. 2 in the world golf rankings. While Indian golf fans probably learned about him when he pipped Anirban Lahiri to win The US$20 million Players Championship back in March, here are five things you might not know about golf’s latest rising star.
Smith was a standout amateur player in Australia
Cameron was introduced to the game by his father Des Smith, who was a scratch golfer himself and a former club champion at Wantima Golf Club in Brisbane. In 2011 Smith won the Victorian Junior Masters and Australian Boy’s Amateur, as well as the Australian Amateur Stroke Play. In 2013, at the age of 19, he won the Australian Amateur. At one point Cameron was 5-down to his opponent in the final but fought back to win 3&2.
Smith and Lahiri battled on the Asian Tour in 2014
Anirban Lahiri poses with his Indonesian Open title after denying Cameron Smith and Baek Seuk- hyun | Photo – Arab News
Long before they went head-to-head at The Players, the pair battled in Indonesia, with Lahiri coming out on top. Smith, who turned pro in 2013, spent 2014 on the Asian Tour, where he had seven top-10s but no wins. In the Indonesian Masters, Smith was the 54-hole leader, one shot ahead of Lahiri. They played together and were tied standing on the 18 th tee at -15. Both players needed to make birdie on the par-5 closing hole to catch the leader in the clubhouse at -16. Smith made his birdie but Lahiri topped him by holing a 20-footer for eagle to win the tournament.
It was Lahiri’s first win outside India. He would go on to finish second on the Asian Tour money list that year while Smith finished fifth.
Smith grew his mullet during the pandemic shutdown
Cameron Smith’s mullet is a character in itself | Photo – Golf Digest
Look at old photos of Cam Smith and you will see a young man with a regular haircut and a bit of a baby face. His distinctive mullet hair style first emerged in 2021. According to the Daily Mail, Smith’s new hairdo was the result of a drinking session with his buddies during the pandemic. & We all just thought it was funny and I’ve just kind of rolled with it, Smith said. After winning the Sony Open in 2021, Smith was asked about his haircut and said it was something he noticed a few Australian rugby league players were doing and it seemed like fun. “It was a great time to do it during quarantine, just something fun. Make people have a laugh about it. I’ve just kind of kept it going. I’ve almost turned it into my good luck charm.”
Reportedly Smith had promised his girlfriend he would get rid of the mullet if he won on the PGA Tour with it, but he obviously hasn’t followed through with his promise.
Smith is averaging 300 yards off the tee this season
Smith’s putting gets most of the attention, and rightly so, but he has steadily improved his driving since joining the PGA Tour. In the 2015-16 season, Smith averaged 286 yards off the tee, but he has added 14 yards to his drives since then.
Golf magazine also reported that at the end of the 2021 season, Smith committed to eating healthier, lifting weights, and doing more cardio. In the offseason he went through a gruelling three month program that noticeably reduced the amount of belly fat he was carrying around. “My body moves a little bit quicker when I don’t have so much weight around my belly,” Smith said. “I feel pretty fresh walking off the golf course, which is a feeling I don’t think I had for a long time. It’s I think why my game has probably got a lot more consistent through four rounds.”
Smith had previously struggled at The British Open
Prior to winning the Open in 2022, Smith had never finished better than 20th in the event, which he did in 2019. He missed the cut in his first Open in 2017 and finished 78 th and 33rd in his other two appearances in 2018 and 2021.
If there was a major Smith seemed likely to win first, it was the Masters, where he has four top-5 finishes, including a second-place finish in 2020, when he became the first player in Masters history to shoot all four rounds in the 60s. In 2022, he was in the final group with Scottie Scheffler and finished in a tie for third. He also has a top-10 finish in 2017.
Smith’s best finish at the U.S. Open so far is a tie for 4 th in 2015 while his best finish at the PGA is a tie for 13 th in 2022.
Credits:-
Photo – Golf Digest