NSW Open 2024: Why cult hero Corey Lamb may be Cameron Smith’s biggest threat for title
There are all types of golfers Cameron Smith would have crossed paths with, but maybe none like Corey Lamb. Find out why the man known as “Chops” is turning heads at the NSW Open.
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There are all types of golfers Cameron Smith would have crossed paths with, but maybe none like Corey Lamb. Or to his mates, just “Chops”.
He’s big, burly and from Branxton in the NSW Hunter Valley, but never judge a golfer by his waistline. He can seriously play.
To look at him, you’d think Lamb could hit the ball back to Victoria from the NSW Open course just on the other side of the border. But he doesn’t necessarily. He loves putting. To win, he says, you need to chip and putt well. Soft hands are the key.
He’s been doing it from a young age, when he was first introduced to golf as he tagged along with his dad, who was told to walk a few courses to rehabilitate two broken ankles suffered when performing jumps on a motorbike. Lamb raced two-wheelers too, but golf won out.
“He took me over one day he was doing his rehab,” said Lamb, who played his first NSW Open as a teenager. “I could sort of hit it straight away. I just loved it. So I kept going.”
His silky hands have propelled the 23-year-old up the leaderboard, where he will no doubt become a new cult hero of Australian golf – he just doesn’t know it yet.
The former NSW amateur star looms as the main chaser to Smith in the NSW Open after overnight leader Lucas Herbert swapped his putter mid-way through the tournament, and promptly slipped out of contention at Murray Downs Country Club on Saturday.
Herbert was left so frustrated with his third round performance on the greens – including a double bogey seven on the 16th, a hole he eagled in the second round - he threw his new putter into a bunker, and then slammed the rake into the sand after retrieving it.
Lamb (-13) spent the night before his third round at the Commercial Hotel near the main street, where had a good feed and finally went to sleep somewhere near midnight. He will have another restless night before matching it with Smith (-15) in the final group on Sunday, starting two shots behind.
Asked if he’d met Smith before, Lamb said: “No, I haven’t met. That will be interesting. I was pretty nervous this morning so I can imagine what it’s going to be like [on Sunday]. I had a flashback and I remember taking videos of him when he was at the Australian Open a few years ago.”
Smith put the foot down from the opening hole of the third round on Saturday – played in searing temperatures which closed in on 40 degrees – and only missed equalling the course record he set on Thursday with a double bogey on 17. He had a five-under 66 and holds all the aces.
The 2022 British Open champion hasn’t won this year, and barring a disaster over the last 18 holes, will surely correct that record in one of the most obscure parts of the world he would have played.
“I didn’t do much wrong to be honest,” Smith said. “I played smart when I had to. It was pretty boring golf, but really solid golf.”
Herbert, whose hometown Bendigo is just a couple of hours down the road, quickly forfeited his two-stroke lead to Smith and never really threatened. He couldn’t buy a putt. By the time he fluffed his way through the 16th, the only thing hotter than the air temperature was Herbert’s temper. He finished at 11-under and four strokes behind Smith.
NSW Open leader: I want a shootout with Smith
A bunch of American sports writers who followed Tiger Woods to the last Presidents Cup on these shores were obsessed with, what they coined, the Australian wave — and it had nothing to with the swell at Bondi.
They couldn’t believe how much they had to shoo flies.
Unbeknownst to them, they were in the city and not the country. Melbourne is a long way from the Murray.
Cameron Smith, who played in that Presidents Cup before he was the Cameron Smith, is right in the frame to win this revitalised NSW Open this week — even if he surrendered the mid-way lead to Lucas Herbert.
Every man, woman and child wants to shake Smith’s hand at Murray Downs Country Club this week, traipsing the fairways behind him for a peep at one of the world’s best. The local club’s boss compared Smith’s presence at the bush course to like Adele singing in his backyard.
The only problem for Smith: he needs that right hand for the Australian wave.
As temperatures surged on Friday, so did the fly count. At one stage, Smith spent an inordinate amount of time trying to disperse the flies from his face before lining up a birdie putt on the 11th. He hit a shocker, a half-baked effort down a hill which was still five feet short. He later called it the “worst putt of my life”.
“I almost missed it, honestly,” he joked. “[The flies] are not something we usually have to deal with. I wouldn’t say it’s an issue, it’s just annoying.”
It’s part of the charm of this tournament being played on the banks of the Murray River.
The course is built in the middle of a sheep station, and with the crowds enveloping the players, Smith’s caddie Sam Pinfold was even asked questions by a fan about how his accommodation was in town as he tried to study Smith’s shortest way to the hole on his next shot. There are heaps of signs near the entry to the players’ tunnel warning of snakes. If you see them, report them.
Smith, the 2022 British Open champion, finished with a three-under 68 in his second round, to be at 10-under for the tournament. He’s two strokes behind his LIV Golf teammate Herbert (-12), who posted a bogey-free 65, missing a short putt on the last to equal Smith’s course record from Thursday.
The turning point on Friday came when Smith hit a stray drive on the par-five 16th. He was reduced to his knees, literally. Trying to axe the ball out from underneath the trees, he couldn’t force it back to the fairway. He finished the hole with bogey and Herbert sunk a monster eagle try.
“I can’t remember a time where I’ve thought less about a leaderboard in a tournament,” Herbert said. “It felt like my competitor I needed to beat was playing with me. That was kind of all we were really worried about.
“I hope we break away from the field and it becomes a bit of a shootout.”
Among the chasers is American-based Australian Brett Drewitt (-8), who hadn’t been home for eight years.
Drewitt has rolled marbles with the world’s best in a career which has yo-yoed between the PGA Tour and the United States’ secondary Korn Ferry circuit.
But he’s still sweating on an invite to the Australian PGA Championship and Australian Open in the next fortnight.
“I’ve been trying to get some invites to events over here and haven’t had any luck,” he said. “It’s hard to come back if you’re not getting into those big ones.
“It is a little frustrating. I had a poor year this year, but I’ve had eight years out there on PGA and Korn Ferry. I honestly would have come back a lot sooner.
“I’ve played against some very strong fields. I’ve played with [Rory] McIlroy, I’ve played with Scottie Scheffler, I’ve played with Xander Schauffele, I’ve played with all those guys. I know what it’s like out there.
“Coming back home knowing I can compete with those guys back there gives me confidence.”
SMITH BLITZES OPENING DAY AT NSW OPEN
Cameron Smith’s pursuit of a first win of the year got off to a blistering start after he equalled the course record in the opening round of the NSW Open.
Smith teed off in brisk early morning conditions at the Murray Downs Country Club in front of about 300 fans who walked the fairways behind him – and with the backdrop of bleating sheep on neighbouring paddocks – before firing a seven-under 64 on Thursday.
It equalled the previous best mark of Matt Millar and Andre Lautee, who have both carded eight-under at the border layout when the par score was 72.
The course is a par 71 for the expanded $800,000 NSW Open, the second of four tournaments Smith will play in Australia this year.
Smith’s LIV Golf teammate Lucas Herbert set up a promoter’s dream when he posted a six-under 65 playing alongside Smith, who is determined to finish 2024 with a victory after a string of near misses in the individual events on Greg Norman’s Saudi-backed LIV circuit.
The 2022 British Open champion signed a bogey-free card after one of the most unique rounds of his career, a long stretch from the multimillion paydays and thumping music of LIV Golf.
“I think it’s so cool watching fans in the fairway,” Smith said. “Everyone was very polite and got out of the way when they needed to. It’s a different type of viewing for them and something they probably don’t get every day.
“It’s a breath of fresh air being out here. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do travelling Australia and I haven’t been down here before.”
Asked what was the most enjoyable part of the day, Smith joked: “No flies. The flies didn’t show up until about the 13th [hole].”
The quirkiness of this year’s NSW Open is best explained by the course being on the NSW side of the Murray River with the majority of golfers and spectators staying in neighbouring Swan Hill, which is part of Victoria.
Smith’s announcement earlier this year he would play the event came as a massive shock and he lived up to top billing with a hot start.
The joint course record came as a surprise even to him, given he doesn’t hold the honour of the lowest round at his home course of Wantima in Brisbane.
The 31-year-old is using the NSW Open as a launching pad for the Australian PGA Championship and Australian Open in the next fortnight.
He broke down in tears after missing the cut in last year’s Australian PGA with a disastrous second round 78 at Royal Queensland.
“I think I was just being lazy and that was the result,” Smith said.
“Being lazy is all your fault. You can’t really pin it on everyone else. Everything felt fine but it was just not being competitive and not putting in the yards. I really got what I deserved to be honest.
“In the long run it was probably a good thing.”
Herbert only returned to regular practice on Sunday after LIV’s end-of-season break and wasted little time finding his groove to share second with Andrew Martin and Nathan Page.
“The alarm went off before five [o’clock] this morning and I thought I left those days behind me when I went to LIV,” Herbert said. “Here we are again.
“I didn’t come out here and expect to do too much. It definitely exceeded my expectations today. I didn’t expect to play that well.
“Probably all year to be honest, a bit of my role within Ripper [GC] is to push Cam. He’s in the peak of his career and he’s got major championships he wants to play well in. So I try to keep him honest in short game drills, money games or tournaments.
“It felt like just another regular day on the job.”
Smith teed off in brisk early morning conditions at the Murray Downs Country Club in front of about 300 fans – and bleating sheep on neighbouring paddocks – before firing a seven-under 64 on Thursday.
It equalled the previous best mark of Matt Millar and Andre Lautee, who both have carded eight-under at the border layout when the par score was 72. The course is a par 71 for the $800,000 NSW Open, the second of four tournaments Smith will play in Australia this year.
Smith’s LIV Golf teammate Lucas Herbert set up a promoter’s dream when he posted a six-under 65 playing alongside Smith, who is determined to finish 2024 with a victory after a string of near misses in the individual events on Greg Norman’s Saudi-backed LIV circuit.
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