Analysis: Why a meeting under the branches of Augusta National’s Big Oak Tree shadows Cameron Smith’s future
Cameron Smith left Augusta National having missed the cut and now any future chance he has at grabbing a Green Jacket may be determined by forces outside his control.
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Cameron Smith drove out of Magnolia Lane after his second round of the Masters, and for the first time in his career, he didn’t play well enough to come back the next day after missing the cut.
There’s no course in the world like Augusta National, which devours those who are only a smidgen off their best. Golf balls can traverse the peaks and troughs of the glasslike Georgian greens and go every which way, and sometimes the harder you try, the worse it gets.
Smith is not alone in having his prayers unanswered by the golfing gods through Amen Corner.
But this time when he left Augusta National, he would have been forgiven for asking himself: how many more chances will I get to have a crack at a green jacket?
Rory McIlroy won, the sixth man to achieve the career grand slam, and the tournament’s astonishing finish is all anyone is really talking about. But what happened behind the scenes during Masters week will be what really matters to Smith.
It’s almost three years since that momentous day when Smith broke McIlroy’s heart in the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews.
Days later, Smith accepted the inter generational wealth on offer, as Greg Norman put it, from the Saudi-backed LIV Golf.
To put simply, his reasons were threefold: the enormous amount of money on offer to jump ship, the luxury to spend far more time in Australia and crucially, he had just pocketed a five-year exemption into every major after his St Andrews career definer.
Don’t blink, but Smith is fast approaching the end of the third year of that exemption, and that’s when things get tricky.
As a winner of The Open, he will have a booking to return until he’s 60. But when it comes to the Masters, he only has two more guaranteed invites until the exemption runs out.
Which is why whatever happened under Augusta’s Big Oak Tree (yes, it’s capitalised as another quirk of the Masters) last week is of vital importance to Smith.
The Big Oak Tree is a meeting place for a who’s who of world golf. From players and agents to family and friends and business executives to the most powerful administrators in the sport, they all mingle, wheel and deal under the shade in a Masters tradition. No one is allowed mobile phones on the course, so everyone talks.
Saudi Arabia’s governor of the public investment fund which props up LIV Golf, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, was spotted in its vicinity. So, too, new LIV Golf commissioner Scott O’Neil, who replaced Greg Norman.
The long-running negotiation between the PGA Tour and the PIF appears headed nowhere fast, and reports Al-Rumayyan left the last meeting held in the Oval Office of US President Donald Trump angry with the most recent PGA Tour proposal has set the golf world abuzz.
O’Neil even said on the eve of the Masters, if there was a deal they could reach to grow the game of the golf, great. Ominously, he also said LIV would be happy to keep going alone.
Smith, no doubt, would have heard those comments and shuddered a little knowing the clock is ticking on his majors exemption, and his world ranking has plunged so far (127 for the record), it’s worthless trying to get access into majors beyond 2027.
Former Masters winners and LIV Golf converts Sergio Garcia and Patrick Reed have similarly seen their exemptions expire, and have travelled the globe in search of world rankings points, even trying their luck at local qualifying for the US Open and Open Championship.
Yes, LIV Golf appears to have garnered some acceptance with the US Open and Open Championship creating a special exemption category for a top LIV player not already into their events.
It’s an olive branch, but a very small one likely to reward just one player. Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley said he won’t follow suit, albeit they have extended a special invite to LIV Golf star and Australian Open champion Joaquin Niemann for the last two years.
Smith’s Masters record is phenomenal for a player who has yet to win at Augusta National.
He’s finished three times in the top five, five times in the top 10. He loves the place, even if Augusta National hasn’t quite fully loved him back.
His opening round one-under 71 last week might have looked like any other score on the leaderboard last week. Dig a little deeper and it was a remarkable round.
He hit a paltry 33 per cent of greens in regulation – the worst player in the field for that stat in the tournament, even behind golden oldies like Fred Couples, Angel Cabrera and Bernhard Langer – but he had the fewest putts of anyone, better than McIlroy, Justin Rose, Bryson DeChambeau, Scottie Scheffler. The toll of scrambling so hard caught up with him late in his second round and he missed the weekend.
Smith’s still got two chances left at the Masters, and anything could happen. But few are sweating on the great schism in professional golf narrowing – quickly – than Australia’s mulleted star.
Because if he gets locked out of Augusta National in a couple of years, McIlroy’s feats won’t be the only thing worth crying over.
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Originally published as Analysis: Why a meeting under the branches of Augusta National’s Big Oak Tree shadows Cameron Smith’s future
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