Cam Smith misses fifth major cut in a row at the British Open
Former champion Cam Smith walked off the 18th at Royal Portrush a broken man overnight having missed another major cut. Has the Aussie star lost his mojo? And can he ever get it back?
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Golf is the type of sport where even the smallest things somehow tend to make news.
The R&A changed the drop zones for this year’s tournament to thick shrubbery so players couldn’t fire balls into grandstands and get easy relief. It made news.
There’s a march in Portrush on the weekend, and the R&A had to move its tee times forward by 15 minutes to lessen congestion in the coastal hideaway in Northern Ireland. It made news.
It’s hard to think of any reason other than a cost of living crisis also crippling the home of golf, but one of the staples of The Open has always been designated people raking bunkers. They were told not to bother this year. Instead, the caddies had to do it themselves. You guessed it, it made news.
Which wasn’t good for the looper on the bag of South African Shaun Norris, who somehow took four shots – four! – to get his ball out of one bunker in his second round. He signed for a 10 on the par-four fourth hole.
“This game can break the biggest person and people on the planet,” Norris shrugged. “I’ll play it a little bit differently next time.”
Now, the real concerning thing is not that Norris didn’t make the cut. But he did beat Cameron Smith and a few other Australians, which is where we need to have a serious discussion.
Has Smith completely lost his mojo? Is it coming back? Can he ever be near the player he was when he tore up the PGA Tour, played the dark knight in running down Rory McIlroy at St Andrews to win the claret jug, and then kept running all the way to the bank of LIV (by the way, an offer most would fall over themselves to accept) shortly afterwards?
While nearly everyone in Australia was asleep, Smith walked off the 18th green at Royal Portrush a beaten man. Golf is breaking him. His scorecard read a 78. Only Adam Scott and Scottish amateur Connor Graham had worse in the second round.
It was his fourth major of the year, his fourth missed cut. Stretching back to last year’s The Open, he hasn’t made the weekend in five straight majors.
For years, even before he won his career-defining Open in 2022, Smith was Australia’s flagbearer in the men’s majors.
If you thought there was an Australian capable of striking lightning in a bottle for one week, Smith was probably the first, second and third choice. In a seven-year period before 2025, he made 23 of 27 cuts. You know who missed more cuts in that time? McIlroy.
Now, that feels like a lifetime ago.
It’s not as if Smith has lost his love for the game, or the want to succeed, even if balancing new fatherhood is tricky for anyone, let alone a professional athlete spending months away from home each year.
Watching him work on the range this week was not raising alarm bells. In a pre-tournament interview after he walked off the green finishing a practice round after 8pm, he said he’d been “working his arse off”. Those who watch him up close and personal agree.
He hinted at needing to refine his mental approach on the course, in particular committing to shots, and largely did a good job of it in the first round, despite his opening tee shot being so comical he joked it almost went “underground”. He bounced back admirably for a one-over 72, which had him right in the middle of the pack, not a bad place in The Open.
But the problem for Smith is when things start unravelling, it’s unravelling fast. It did so in the second round.
His short game, for so long arguably one of the world’s best, can’t keep saving him. His vulnerability has probably always been off the tee, and a dig into the stats at Royal Portrush makes for grim reading.
In the strokes gained for how a player performs in certain areas, Smith ranked dead last in the 156-man field off the tee. No place puts a premium on accurate tee shots more than Royal Portrush. It tortured him.
So, where to now? Smith only has a month left of the LIV Golf season, which means time to turn it around is scarce. What he does after that will be fascinating.
For so long, Smith has carried the can for Australia’s two marquee events during the summer of golf, the one they put on posters to sell tickets and kids press against the rope to see. Australian golf has needed him, probably more than he’s needed them.
But this year is different.
McIlroy is coming for the Australian Open, and the coffers are booming because the green jacket winner’s popularity has never been higher. If there’s one event Smith wants to win so badly outside the Masters, it’s the Australian Open. Now, McIlroy is in his way for the next two years.
Every professional golfer will have peaks and troughs throughout their career, and Smith is no doubt at his lowest ebb for a long time. Everyone will have an opinion why he’s not the player he was a couple of years ago, only he will be able to find the answers.
His five-year exemption into all four majors, such a factor in his LIV decision, is running out fast. He has two more guaranteed shots at Augusta National, a place he loves so much even if it hasn’t quite loved him back, and that might be it unless something changes, whether it be world rankings points for LIV, a stellar result in a major, whatever.
Because if it gets to a point where he’s locked out of Augusta, then it will be news far bigger than a few people being told they can’t rake some bunkers.
Originally published as Cam Smith misses fifth major cut in a row at the British Open
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