US Masters 2023: Cameron Smith faces hot reception as golf’s civil war threatens to take over Augusta
If Cameron Smith thinks trouble will only be found on the Augusta fairways, then he is in for a huge shock when lands in town as the sole member of LIV’s Masters representation.
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Cameron Smith has been widely quoted at the latest LIV event in Orlando but he is about to get the mother of all grillings as he prepares to launch his latest bid for the green jacket at Augusta National this week.
More than a dozen players have been scheduled to conduct interviews in the lead-up to the opening round of the year’s first major but only one — Smith — is a member of the Saudi-backed LIV tour that has driven a wedge through the sport.
Smith has done his best to play down talk of the schism between the warring factions in Orlando but the true test is only days away as 18 members of the LIV Tour prepare to join their PGA Tour counterparts at Augusta National.
Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods, two of the loudest voices on the PGA Tour, have also been scheduled for interviews along with Australia’s Jason Day and Harrison Crowe, the latter having qualified for the Masters via the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship.
Smith, however, is the sole member of LIV’s Masters representation that has been booked in to face the world’s media, leaving him to carry the torch for Greg Norman and the Saudi-backed tour that has been accused of sportswashing, where countries with poor human rights records use sport to clean up their image.
Smith is polite by nature but his patience is being sorely tested as he looks to become only the second Australian to win the Masters.
He is widely regarded as our best chance given his recent record at the venue, although Day has been in resurgent form and has a love affair with Augusta, having finished in the top five on three occasions.
Adam Scott will also have some warm and fuzzy feelings heading back to Augusta National given he is celebrating the 10th anniversary of his historic win at the Masters.
Yet Smith is the man who will carry the hopes of Australia on his shoulders and two-time major winner Greg Norman, who just so happens to be the commissioner of LIV Golf, is among those who believe the time is nigh for his fellow Queenslander.
“I saw Cam play just recently in Tucson and his swing looks right, his short game looks really good,” Norman said.
“I know he is putting a lot of hard work into it. I would be surprised if he is not contending coming into the weekend.
“But Augusta is an interesting place and you have to be sharp in all aspects of your game — one mistake at the wrong time can set you back.
“But I really like the way Cam is playing right now. He is a great putter right. I would put him up there in one of the top three today of all players with his putting prowess.
“It doesn’t seem as though there is a weakness in that stroke. It doesn’t matter what pressure he is under — he just deals with it.
“It is status quo on the putting green to be honest with you. That is going to be one of his great points — your putting has to be consistently strong from Thursday to Sunday.”
While Smith will head to the Masters among the short-priced favourite, Day is also back in the reckoning after emerging from a difficult period to rediscover his game.
Day has good vibes at Augusta - he has finished in the top five on three occasions - but his form has waned in recent years.
He has turned that around over the past year, his putter getting hot again as he prepares to launch his latest Masters assault.
“I think you head guys saying they’re taking ownership of their game,” Day said recently.
“I never really understood that until the last two years - to really kind of understand how my body working … for me to be able to swing the club a certain way is important.
“I’m not 21 any more and I don’t recover the same way. When I got to No.1 in the world back in ’15, I enjoyed the journey getting there but when I got there, I dined; t know how I got there, which is interesting to say because I had a team of people around me that would just take care of everything.”
Why US Masters could disintegrate into bitter LIV-PGA feud
Cameron Smith will head to Augusta National this week eyeing off a pair of firsts.
The glaringly obvious is to slip on the green jacket, a prize piece of apparel that he has come tantalisingly close to winning on a handful of occasions over the course of his career.
The other is to play with 15-time major winner Tiger Woods. Smith has remarkably never played a round with Woods, something he would be love to change the Masters’, which begins on Friday morning (AEDT).
“Tiger was one of those guys I looked up to when I was younger,” Smith told News Corp.
“I have never played with him but I would like too.”
Smith’s chances of playing alongside Woods are slowly waning. His decision to defect to the Saudi-backed LIV Tour means that he no longer plies his trade on the PGA Tour, which Woods has championed during golf’s bitter civil war.
Cautious Masters organisers may opt to keep players from the respective tours apart through the opening two rounds to reduce the chance of conflict, meaning Woods and Smith are unlikely to cross paths through the early stages of the tournament.
Woods has also significantly wound down the number of events he plays these days, a combination of age and injury meaning he is rarely seen at PGA tournaments.
“I think there was a couple of times where he has been in the group in front or behind,” Smith’s coach Grant Field said.
“I remember there was a time when Tiger came to Australia when Cam was 17, playing at The Lakes (in Sydney).
“Tiger was two groups in front of us and the crowds, they just didn’t care what the group behind was doing. It was really interesting.
“There have been a couple of times where he has been in groups next to him but they just haven’t played together. I am sure he would love to. If it happens, it happens.
“If it doesn’t I am sure he will be fine.”
Woods reportedly turned down as much as $1 billion to remain loyal to the PGA Tour then took that loyalty to the next level by actively campaigning to keep the sport’s biggest names out of the clutches of LIV Golf.
He succeeded to a degree. Smith was one of the big names who went the other way, committing to LIV in a deal reportedly worth as much as $140 million.
That decision hasn’t cost him at this year’s Masters but it could in years to come as his world ranking drops — LIV events are yet to be recognised by the Official World Golf Ranking Organisation — and his exemptions begin to fade.
Smith can combat that with a win this week, which would bring with it a lifetime exemption to the tournament.
“I’ve said it before, I genuinely feel I play my best golf there,” Smith said.
“I just haven’t had a week where everything has come together. You can get a bit of a bad break, or a momentum shift I haven’t quite been able to get on top of. You make one mistake around there it could mean a couple of shots. But I feel it’s the place where I have my best golf and I’m pretty confident going back there.
“I’m just waiting for it all to come together. I did a tonne of work at the start of the week. Basically stuff around the green because I know how important this is around Augusta and I need to be on top of that. I’m feeling good.”
Smith will arrive at Augusta National on the fifth line of betting, behind defending champion Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Jordan Spieth.
His record at the course suggests he deserves plenty of respect — he finished second in 2020 and third last year, his hopes fading when he found Rae’s Creek on the par three 12th.
Last year’s capitulation is motivation enough. But there is even more this time around thanks to the continued bickering between supporters of the PGA and LIV Tours.
Those on the PGA Tour side will take great delight in the LIV players every flaw this week. .
“If you can’t get up for Augusta you are not trying,” Field said.
“He really plays well there because it engages his imagination and creativity. I wouldn’t expect much less than we have seen in the past.
“He will want to prove a point obviously with everything going on. A lot has been made of it by the media an external sources.
“I guess you would be naive to think there isn’t a little bit of that there for them because everybody is going to be watching what they do and wanting to poke holes in what they are doing.
“I think there is a little bit of extra motivation, no question. So I can’t see that he won’t do very well.”
Norman’s crushing LIV reality as Augusta anguish continues
Two-time major winner Greg Norman suffered his greatest heartbreak at Augusta National and nearly 30 years later, golf’s most hallowed course continues to cause him untold anguish.
As Cameron Smith prepares to lead the Aussie charge at the US Masters next week, Norman has come to the devastating realisation that he will never be welcome back at Augusta National.
“I did a documentary at Augusta National for ESPN and … If you go back and watch that documentary and how closely I was connected both spiritually and physically to Augusta National — and then to see where it is today where I truly believe I will never be asked to go back there — well that is it,” Norman told News Corp.
“It is just hard for me to fathom that much fracturing can take place. Does it hurt? The thought of it hurts absolutely.
“That is what the reality of life is. That is the decision people make. Life is too short. I am not going to pine on what those decisions are.
“I do what is right for myself, the jobs I have to do and the companies I own.”
Norman’s career will forever be entwined with Augusta National thanks to his dramatic collapse at the 1996 Masters, when he was swamped by Nick Faldo on the final day.
It was a loss that tormented him for years and became part of Masters folklore. For all the pain that he endured nearly 30 years ago, Norman never fell out of love with the golf course or the event that it hosts.
The course, or at least the people who run the Masters, have seemingly fallen out of love with Norman. The relationship began to fray when the Great White Shark aligned himself with the Saudi-backed LIV Tour, driving a wedge through the sport and its biggest names.
The Masters will feature LIV golfers – Smith among them – but the sport continues to be fractured and many have laid the blame squarely at the feet of Norman, who took on the role as commissioner of LIV Golf.
That role put him in direct conflict with the PGA Tour and members of the establishment, who responded by freezing LIV players out of their events.
The majors including the Masters have been the exception.
“I won’t be there – to be honest with you I would not want to be there if it created a distraction to LIV or other players,” Norman said.
“I think that would be unfair for the game of golf. I would love to be there, absolutely. I have been to the Masters even when I haven’t played there for many, many a year.
“I am being consistent here – it is all about the game of golf. It is not about individuals. From my point of view, to go there if it was a distraction, it would be unfair on that system because I would probably be a focal point under the tree at the back of the clubhouse.
“That is a distraction away from what it is – it is the Masters, it is golf.”
While he may no longer be welcome back, Norman hopes the LIV players are treated with respect. Smith will start the tournament among the favourites to claim the fabled green jacket but Norman is wary of the reception the world No. 5 will receive, if not from the fans than from the players who have aligned themselves with the PGA Tour.
“I would hate to think there would be backlash because again going back to respecting the game of golf, these players are great players and they made a decision to do something that they thought was right for them as independent contractors,” Norman said.
“You can’t begrudge them for that, as much as we don’t begrudge anyone else who didn’t want to do it.
“As I said, it is all about the game. I would hope, especially at Augusta National where there his very much a controlled environment, that they don’t allow anything like that to happen because what it does is degrades the game and it takes a very childish slant, and brings animus into the sport where it shouldn’t be.
“I just don’t understand even to this day why there is so much animus involved. I do from the PGA Tour perspective and the monopolists. But I don’t understand it from the players’ perspective.
“This is all about golf. The majors should always have the best players in their field – they are the best events. It is all about golf.
“If Cam Smith wins or someone else wins, hey it is a major championship. You respect the game of golf and you want the best players in the world playing.
“It is not about LIV players doing this. Of course we want to see the LIV players doing well. But the game is bigger and above everything else in this world and that is how we all have to look at it.”
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