After suffering the most “brutal” day of his major championship career at the British Open and shooting an 80 for the first time in one of the four largest golf championships, Cameron Smith is left licking his wounds.
The 30-year-old Queenslander carded a nine-over par round on Thursday at Royal Troon, the most humiliating opening round he had experienced in 33 majors dating back nine years.
Following a bogey on the first hole and a triple-bogey seven on the second, Smith was well-positioned to surpass his previous worst major round of 79 at the 2018 US Open at Shinnecock Hills.
However, this one might have felt much worse because he shared the company of the motivated Shane Lowry, the 2019 champion who easily won second place with a faultless 66, which was at least 14 shots better than the disastrous effort from the Australian. Lowry had nine bogeys and a triple.
Smith has been playing very well on the LIV tour, but his round eliminates any realistic hope of him winning the Claret Jug he won at St Andrews two years ago.
“No, buddy, it’s not easy. lots of wind gusts. It’s difficult to keep the ball on the fairway, and you have to kind of guess when you land something short in the rough based on the bounces you get.
“I saw firsthand how difficult and excellent the test of golf was; to shoot below par, you had to be at least an A-plus player. Shane performed well.
Smith shrugged after hitting the second shot out of bounds, saying, “There was a lot of golf left after that point.” Anything is possible. Before, I’ve done it. It was, I believe, on the second hole as well, where I tripled and won the golf competition.
“It was just an awful day. I mean, I wouldn’t have said it was feasible if you had told me yesterday that I was going to shoot that,” Smith remarked.
However, I had a somewhat poor start and was unable to make any putts when I needed to to get back in the game. had a few unfortunate setbacks also.”
It could have been worse, actually, as Smith managed to salvage two birdies on the last three holes to give himself the merest bit of comfort.
At the very least, playing with Lowry and Matt Fitzpatrick, two great champions, sparked his champion’s spirit.
“If you ask me, it was incredibly difficult. Smith remarked, “If you ask Shane, it would probably be a different story!” regarding their individual rounds.
“There are a few things that cross your thoughts to make you sit up and pay attention. However, to be honest, the day was incredibly harsh.”
The doubly irritating thing was that he said he had been “quietly confident” following his sixth-place finish at Valderrama, Spain, last week—one of his recent string of top-10 LIV performances.
“To get to the weekend, I’ll just head outside and attempt to shoot a really low one. Given that the golf course doesn’t actually give you many easy shots, it’s a tremendous task,” Smith shrugged.
“I’m at a loss for how to make it different. That day was simply awful.”
