A refreshing, laid-back Australian is making a name for himself as he rises up the rankings, writes GARY LEMKE.
Garrick Higgo was about to leave the room when he turned around and said, ‘I forgot to answer your question. He’s good, very good. And he’s a great guy too. I think he’s just having fun.’
Higgo, the rising South African 22-year-old who has already won seven titles as a professional, including three on the European Tour (now DP World Tour) and one on the PGA Tour, had been talking about his Tokyo Olympic experience last August. He’d played the first two rounds with Viktor Hovland of Norway and Cameron Smith of Australia and had returned to the Team SA apartment block within the athletes’ village ‘bubble’.
We’d been chatting about the unique Olympic experience and whether there was a different ‘feel’ to representing your country at the Games in individual competition as opposed to being on Tour.
Higgo, who never quite got going with rounds of 71, 71, 70 and 72, admitted that it had been a lot of fun paired with Hovland and Smith.
‘Here at the Olympics I’ve been speaking to Cam Smith. Our demeanours are similar, we work very hard at getting better. I’m good at letting things go. If I make a double-bogey I don’t fake my reaction. A lot of guys get down on themselves – I don’t.
‘Obviously, I don’t forget the previous hole and if I lose a ball in a tree and make double, I remember it, but I don’t get down on myself for doing so. If I get to six over – it happens! – I think, “Wouldn’t it be great if I made four birdies in a row and then I’d be two over.” I think Cam is similar.’
Smith stepped into 2022 as the second most famous Cameron Smith in Australia.
The first is perhaps the greatest Australian rugby league player who ever lived. The NRL star is 10 years older than the golfer and the younger Smith spent his childhood idolising the man.
‘It’s just cool. It’s like having Superman as your name. Everyone knows how good he is,’ said the golfer last year. ‘As a kid, to have the same name makes you feel like you are kind of like him. So, it was fun for me to see his success and it makes you believe you can achieve great things too.’
Smith the golfer is certainly making a name for himself and is making people sit up and take notice, not just of his 1970s-style mullet and moustache. Business in front and party at the back, and all that.
Even Smith the rugby league legend has taken note. ‘I first heard of Cam when he came on Tour as a young fella a few years back,’ he said. ‘Smith and Cameron are quite common names but of course it stood out, and to share the name and be pretty much from the same town – we grew up 30-40km apart from each other – that was pretty remarkable.
‘Ever since he started on the PGA Tour, I have been following his progress. When I got to meet him, I found him to be a very laid-back type of fella. A typical Queensland kid who loves his sport.’
Smith the golfer is a reminder of the ’70s. He adopted the hairstyle in 2020 after he saw National Rugby League players growing similar ones. ‘Queenslanders, and most Australians, are pretty good at bringing people back down to earth if you get a little bit full of yourself,’ he says.
As is the case with so many successful golfers, Cameron was introduced to the game by his father. Des, a scratch golfer, was in the printing business, which meant his shift was over when the school day ended. Smith beat his dad for the first time when he was 12 but Des says he knew from age six the boy could be a professional. ‘He flushed every shot,’ his father told Ben Everill of the PGA Tour. But Des didn’t force the issue, except suggesting Cameron might want to give up rugby league.
‘He used to like the attacking part of rugby league but let’s just say he was a bit of a grabber in defence. He didn’t use his shoulder much. So I told him it might be time to choose golf or league because the way you’re defending you’re likely to get hurt.’
‘When he qualified for the 2015 US Open (by making four birdies in his last six holes at the regionals), Smith was determined to prove his worth. While Jordan Spieth was winning his second straight Major, Smith was making his own splash. Knowing he needed to eagle the last hole to secure his future, Smith’s final approach shot at Chambers Bay was a 3-wood that set up a tap-in eagle and ensured a tie-fourth finish. It gave him temporary membership on the PGA Tour. He’s been there ever since.
And he’s shown that he has nerves of steel. He was 3 down to Justin Thomas at the 2019 Presidents Cup singles before rallying to win. He was out of position many times in the final round of the 2020 Masters but created brilliant short-game shots to stay in the mix and close with a 69 to finish tie-second behind Dustin Johnson. And at the 2020 Sony Open he was four over after the first two holes but rebounded to shoot 70 – and go on to win the tournament.
All along he has put his never-say-die attitude down to rugby league. ‘Watching those Queensland boys on TV in the State of Origin match for me is inspiring. Just watching them smash the Blues and be willing to do anything to win despite always being the underdog team. To give every ounce for their mates – seemingly outside their ability – and most of the time they just find a way to win. It’s inspiring to me to just try and be like that,’ he told Everill.
‘Cam certainly has all the attributes to be No 1 in the world somewhere down the track. His golf skills are there for all to see but he’s also got the right temperament,’ Smith the rugby league player told the PGA Tour.
‘All the great players and athletes, no matter what sport, have the temperament to come up with the right options and the big plays when they need them because they don’t get overawed. He’s that type of personality.’
He’s also on the way to stardom. When he won the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii in January, he did so by seeing off a charging world No 1 Jon Rahm; Smith shot rounds of 65, 64, 64 and 65 for 258, one fewer than the Spaniard. It was a staggering 34-under-par total and took down the 19-year record set by Ernie Els at the 2003 Mercedes Championship at Kapalua for lowest score to par at a PGA Tour event.
Smith’s fighting spirit was evident in his post-tournament interview. ‘Obviously, playing with Jon over the weekend was tough. He kept firing at pins and kept making birdies, and I felt like I had to stay on top of him, and it was nice to do that …
I mean, he’s the best golfer in the world and there are many reasons he is. He flushes it and it seems like he drains every putt he looks at. So, yeah, it was nice to kind of overcome that and give some punches back, to give him something to think about.’
For now, though, it’s the other golfers on Tour who will be thinking about the name Cameron Smith and no one is likely to confuse him with the Australian rugby league legend again.
20 BEST FINISHES
2015: US Open (T4th)
2016: Australian Open (T2nd)
2017: Australian PGA Championship (1st), CJ Cup (3rd)
2018: Dell Technologies Championship (3rd), Northern Trust (T3rd), Australian PGA Championship (1st), The Masters (T5th), WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play (3rd), Genesis Open (T6th)
2019: CJ Cup (T3rd), WGC-Mexico Championship (T6th)
2020: The Masters (T2nd), Sony Open (1st), ZOZO Championship (T4th)
2021: Northern Trust (2nd), Genesis Invitational (4th), WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational (T5th), The Masters (T10th)
2022: Sentry Tournament of Champions (1st)
– This article first appeared in the February 2022 issue of Compleat Golfer magazine. Subscribe here!
