Australian PGA Championship 2025: Former world No.2 Cameron Smith misses cut
Cameron Smith will be a weekend spectator at the Australian PGA Championship after bombing out of the tournament with a second-round four-over 75.
Cameron Smith’s nightmare year on the golf course took another turn as the three-time Joe Kirkwood Cup winner bombed out of the Australian PGA Championship before the weekend.
The former world No.2 and Australia’s most celebrated men’s golfer in recent years missed the cut after struggling to a four-over 75 which left him watching from outside the cutline with fellow big guns Joaquin Niemann and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen.
Starting the day in a decent position after a two-under 69 on Thursday, Smith’s game creaked on the back nine to compound a torrid year in which he missed the cut in all four majors.
Having said he’d only taken one day off in several weeks to prepare for Australia’s two big events, the 31-year-old was grinding through his front nine as he walked the cut tightrope.
But three bogeys in the space of four holes from the 11th through the 14th stopped Smith (+2) from making the weekend and robbed the tournament of one of its major drawcards.
Including the Alfred Dunhill Links and last week’s Saudi International, Smith has missed the cut in all seven official world rankings events he’s played this year. His world ranking has plunged to 345.
Having become a father for the first time earlier this year, Smith has enjoyed one of the greatest periods of his life, but his golf game will need rapid improvement to contend in next week’s Australian Open at Royal Melbourne featuring Rory McIlroy.
Smith has made no secret the Stonehaven Cup is one of the main priorities for the rest of his career having not been able to clinch the national championship yet.
And it’s hard to pinpoint where it’s going wrong.
In his own words, one day Smith feels like he’s driving the ball well but can’t sink a putt, and the next he’s slightly out of position with his ball striking but scrambling with his short game as good as ever.
On Friday, he couldn’t take a trick on the greens. He shaved cups and narrowly sent others wide with good rolls, then there were just plain uncharacteristic misses like a short birdie try on the 15th when he pulled it well off target.
A bit of luck wouldn’t hurt either.
As his searing second into the par-five ninth crept up towards the green, it dribbled a little left and into a greenside bunker. It stayed a little further right and he would have had an eagle putt. Smith couldn’t get up-and-down out of the trap and settled for par as playing partners Min Woo Lee and Marco Penge made birdies.
The 15th was the same. Lining up his second from the middle of the fairway, he arrowed an approach which was only slightly long, enough for it to scupper down the back of the green and then over another rise to rest in front of a temporary seating structure. That’s just how it is at the moment.
The only joy Smith had was on the party hole 17th when he made birdie, but walking to the tee he was in no mood for a celebration.
The last time Smith missed the cut at the Australian PGA Championship two years ago, he returned to Royal Queensland on the weekend to keep practicing and also conduct a junior clinic with kids.
It was noble, gracious, but not the place he wants to be on the third day of the Australian PGA Championship.
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Originally published as Australian PGA Championship 2025: Former world No.2 Cameron Smith misses cut
