Cameron Smith locked in to defend Australian PGA and chase Australian Open victory

Cameron Smith has confirmed he will return to Australia over summer to defend his Australian PGA title and has set his sights on a maiden Australian Open win.

Cameron Smith is homeward bound to play in Australia’s marquee tournaments over the summer. Picture: Mike Stobe/Getty Images

Cameron Smith is set to make a fleeting return to Australia in October if his beloved Brisbane Broncos make the NRL grand final before going trophy hunting of his own later in the year after confirming on Tuesday morning that he would play the Australian PGA and Open.

Smith is a three-time winner of the PGA but he is yet to add the Open to his bulging trophy cabinet, a void that clearly still eats away at him.

He makes no secret of his desire to get his hands on the Stonehaven Cup and will return to Sydney later in the year determined to make it happen, having run out of steam at the end of a whirlwind homecoming home 12 months ago.

“It was a bit of a crappy way to end such a good year, especially after Brisbane was so good,” Smith said.

“I think that a lot of that external stuff really got to me that second week. I just didn’t feel very energetic, which is really weird.

Cameron Smith is homeward bound to play in Australia’s marquee tournaments over the summer. Picture: Mike Stobe/Getty Images

“It is usually a tournament I am the most amped up for. There I was and I didn’t feel like myself. Its as a little bit painful.

“Hopefully I can do a better job this year of controlling a bit of that stuff. As nice as it is to be home and have all that stuff, it takes it out of you.

“I feel like I need it. I don’t even want it any more, I just need it. It is weird for me because I played so well at the Aussie PGA so many times and have managed to win a few there.

“Then to not get an Aussie Open is kind of frustrating. Hopefully we can change that this year.”

Smith’s schedule is set in stone for the rest of this year and after checking his dates on Tuesday morning, he realised there was a hole around the NRL grand final.

He is hoping the Broncos make it that far and he can race back to Australia for the weekend before playing the remaining two events on the LIV tour at Jeddah and Miami. Then it’s back to Australia for the summer circuit.

“It might not work out too bad,” Smith said.

“It is a fair bit of travel involved so it would be worth it.”

He remains in the dark beyond this year as talks continue between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf over a potential merger, although he insists LIV events will continue including the wildly-successful tournament in Adelaide earlier this year.

Smith remains in the dark beyond this year as talks continue between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf over a potential merger. Picture: AFP.

“For sure it is going ahead,” Smith said.

“We are definitely coming back down. All the boys on LIV, that was probably their favourite tournament this year.

“The golf course, the crowd had something to do with it. If we didn’t come back down there, there would be an uproar.”

Pressed on plans for his schedule next year, Smith conceded he was waiting for more information. One tournament, however, that is very definitely on his radar is the Olympics.

While many of his LIV allies have fallen out of Olympic contention as their world rankings have slumped, Smith’s ability to stay in contention in the majors means he is still pressing for a spot in the top 10.

As it stands, he will be an automatic qualifier for Australia although he concedes there is a sense of nervousness as he waits to see how the rankings systems shakes out when the PGA Tour and LIV Golf sort out their differences.

“I am pretty conscious of it,” he said of the Paris Games.

“I had a pretty good major season. It would have been interesting to see – or it wouldn’t have been interesting to see, it would have been terrible to see – how far you would go back if you didn’t have a couple of good finishes in majors.

“So it is definitely in the back of my mind and definitely something I want to try to do again. I loved it last time. There is nothing like wearing the coat of arms.”