LIV stars declare Cameron Smith the man to beat in Adelaide

Three of the LIV stars in Adelaide this week finished in the top four at the Masters but they are chasing the guns with home ground advantage.

Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Bryson De Chambeau, in Adelaide (Photo by Sarah Reed/Getty Images)

Brooks Koepka has shaken off the disappointment of his Masters final round fade-out confident his LIV winning ways can continue in Adelaide where the concession is Australian star Cameron Smith is the man to beat.

Smith will lead the All-Australian Ripper GC team at The Grange in Adelaide this week where Koepka, who topped the leaderboard for three days at Augusta and surrendered a two-shot final round lead to finish in a tie for second behind Jon Rahm, will be teeing it up in Australia for the first time.

Before he headed out for his first look at the course on Wednesday, Koepka, who won the last LIV event in Orlando a week before the Masters, took the positives out of his performance.

Brooks Koepka speaking in Adelaide (Photo by Sarah Reed/Getty Images)

He said he worked out what went wrong on that long Sunday which included concluding his third round then playing the fourth with Rahm, and “got to the bottom it” knowing he was still playing well enough to win again this week.

“You just kind of take some time and digest it all. Did a good job of that Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and just kind of relaxed and tried to think about why it happened, why I played bad on Sunday, or Saturday-Sunday, whatever it was,” he said in Adelaide.

“I‘m always pretty honest with myself, and normally it goes on what I was thinking, what I was doing. It was nice to get to the bottom of it.

“Look, you tell anybody you‘re going to finish second in a major, especially where I was six months ago, a year ago, I’m not sure there, so I would have taken that, so it’s tough to really argue with it.

“Then reality, expectations and all that stuff gets thrown in there. But it was a good solid week and I can‘t really complain. Gave myself a chance to win, and that’s all you can ask for every time you tee it up.”

Dustin Johnson played at Royal Melbourne in the 2019 Presidents Cup

Koepka was injured and missed the 2019 Presidents Cup so has little knowledge of Australian golf compared to fellow LIV competitors Dustin Johnson and even Bryson DeChambeau who have visited more than once.

That big-hitting pair have conceded bombs off the tee may not be the order of the day around a course which is shorter than others, so course management comes in to play.

“I have to lay back a lot of the times. I can‘t just blow it out there and hit a wedge on. It kind of puts me more in a box, which is fine. I’ve just got to have good wedging and putt it really well,” DeChambeau, the 2021 US Open champ said.

But Johnson still predicted low-scoring could be on offer.

“You can get a lot of wedges in your hands if you‘re driving it well,” the two-time major winner said.

“For me, I think for a lot of the guys, if we‘re driving it straight, we’re going to play pretty good around here.”

Cameron Smith practices in Adelaide (Photo by Sarah Reed/Getty Images)

Local knowledge will however be the extra weapon Smith and his teammates Marc Leishman, Mat Jones and Jed Morgan have in their arsenal.

That, combined with sellout crowds in their corner, could be the leg=up their team needs to finally find some LIV success.

“The Rippers are going to be tough to beat,” DeChambeau said.

“They’ve played here their whole lives, so they’re going to have a huge crowd behind them of support, but we’ll see as the week goes on.”

Originally published as LIV stars declare Cameron Smith the man to beat in Adelaide