Cam Smith survives Australian Open cut by a whisker as Adam Scott and Hannah Green hit the lead
Cam Smith lamented his ‘pretty rubbish’ performance at the Australian Open and expected to miss the cut. Hours later, he survived by a shot as Adam Scott roared back to prominence and Hannah Green took the lead in the women’s tournament.
Cam Smith went off a bit early. Whacked on his T-shirt and shorts and celebrated his Australian PGA Championship triumph like there was no tomorrow.
You couldn’t blame him for getting stuck into the beers and painting his home town red and being piggybacked around the Breakfast Creek Hotel by his mates last weekend but in the cold hard light of day, he still had one more tournament before racking the cue for the year.
It’s extremely doubtful if Smith’s Australian Open rivals, including the resurgent Adam Scott, began the week with a belting hangover. He’s an open book and made no secret of his predicament when he arrived in Melbourne. “Crook in the guts,” was how he described it to Karrie Webb when they crossed paths at Kingston Heath.
Knackered and rather bereft at lunchtime on Friday, Smith lamented his “pretty rubbish” performance and expected to miss the cut – only to scrape through by the hairs on his chinny-chin-chin.
The women’s Open became a world-class shootout as Scott roared to prominence. The US Masters champion shot 63 like he was driving a Rolls Royce around the Victoria course, leaving him eight-under par for the event and joint leader with Melbourne’s David Micheluzzi.
Hopes of a dream women’s showdown between Australia’s major champions Hannah Green and Minjee Lee were alive and kicking when they nestled high on a leaderboard littered with major champions.
Green led at 11-under after firing a six-under 66 at Victoria, two strokes clear of Korea’s Jiyai Shin. Lee was in range at five-under.
Smith’s much-hyped appearance at Royal Queensland last week was an emotionally draining venture in which he paraded his British Open trophy to everyone from local juniors to Johnathan Thurston – skol! – before he won the PGA title under emotional family circumstances caused by his grandmother’s cancer battle.
He deserved a cold one after all that.
No worries. Good on him. And yet it wasn’t exactly the textbook build-up to a meaningful tournament. The Open was the Australian event Smith really wanted to dominate before putting his clubs in the garage until next year.
It all looked to have gone pear-shaped on Friday when the event’s biggest drawcard carded a one-over-par at Kingston Heath to go with his one-over 71 at Victoria on Thursday. He thought he was a cooked duck.
“Fingers crossed,” he said of making the cut, figuring it unlikely. He was shell-shocked and exhausted when he entered the Kingston Heath clubhouse at lunchtime, hoping the afternoon scores would balloon so he could sneak through. Just when you were prepared to steal a 1930s headline regarding the early dismissal of another famous Australian sportsman, “He’s Out,” he ended up getting in.
Still, Smith was hardly heading to the weekend in sparkling form.
“Just couldn’t quite hit the ball out of the middle of the club face,” he said. “I think the mind was a little bit foggy. Obviously a little bit tired, last week being such a big week. It’s still there, mate, but just pretty disappointing. I had a lot of adrenaline going last week.
“The crowds were awesome. I had friends and family there, so I wanted to play well for them. I think it’s just kind of all hit me at once and I just got a little bit tired.”
He added: “I need to play better than that, even when I’m tired. That was pretty rubbish out there. It’s probably the easiest this place is going to get.
“You need to be spot-on with everything and this wasn’t quite my best stuff.”
When he was asked if winning another Australian Open after the tournament’s two-year shutdown because of Covid, Scott replied: “If I win, for sure. I like the story. It’s good. I have really enjoyed my six rounds of golf here in Australia.
“It’s always nice when you can take a lot of players out of it.
“If I can play well (on Saturday) and anyone else can come with (me) and there’s only a few guys in it, that would be a great position for Sunday.”
Lee was in the early-morning group behind Smith’s at Kingston Heath. She’s won more majors than him, two to one, but had a fraction of the spectators by about 10 to one. She’s had a huge year, too, highlighted by her US Women’s Open victory.
“Your brain kind of goes into holiday mode or shutdown mode. However positively you want to put it,” she said of her end-of-season fatigue. “Just over the course of the year, you go hard, week-in, week-out. And travelling so much makes the mental part quite tough. But it’s always nice to come back home and play.
“Just fight it out for one more week. It comes down to one step in front of the other. You just take what you get, whatever’s in front of you. One step at a time, that’s the easiest way to get through it.”
When asked about Smith attracting a significantly larger gallery, she said: “He was in front of us and there was a good following for him. We’ve had a pretty great following too, so I don’t expect the fans to fight over the men and the women.
“This is why we have the tournament, both genders in one venue, so they can watch all of us. I’m sure they’ll have a look here and there and watch the men, watch the women. That’s the beauty of it.”
Green was one group ahead of Scott. She, too, was running on empty. “I feel like I’m a lot more tired than I am usually,” she said. “Just because I’ve had a lot of other commitments that I probably wouldn’t have if I was just playing an LPGA tournament.
“So long as it’s promoting golf in Australia, I’m happy to do it. I definitely haven’t played in front of crowds like this in Australia before. Having Adam Scott in the group behind obviously helps.
“There’s a lot of people. You get some huge roars. It’s just exciting to see people so thrilled to be at a golf tournament.”
Scott’s eagle on the par-five 18th blew the roof off the marquee tents and set the scene for a bumper weekend to decide the Stonehaven Cup and Patricia Bridges Bowl. Smith left Kingston Heath with something other than the tournament on is mind.
“I can’t wait for a sleep,” he said. “I’ve played a lot more golf than I thought I would at the start of the year. I’m looking forward to four or five weeks off and just kind of mentally resetting.
“The brain’s been going pretty hard the last few months. It would be a good time to sit down on a beach somewhere and have a few margaritas.”
Plans for the off-season?
“Anything that’s not golf, to be honest. Fishing. I’m sure I’ll spend a fair bit of time in the gym and stuff, looking after my body. I tend to really struggle on back-to-back weeks because I do put so much into that first week.
“It’s something I definitely need to work on. Getting more mentally prepared for the week after is definitely something that can improve. A lot’s changed. Just going to shops and dinner and stuff is a lot different.
“It gets frustrating at times, but it is what it is.”
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