Cameron Smith heads to the Australian Open at Royal Melbourne this week still searching for his first win in more than two years. But there’s another concerning streak he’s trying to break.
The Aussie star hasn’t made a single 36-hole cut in seven tournaments outside the LIV Golf League this year. That includes all four majors, the Dunhill Links Championship, the Saudi International, and last week’s Australian PGA Championship.
“Golf doesn’t owe me anything,” Smith said Tuesday at Royal Melbourne. “I have to go out there and work and I think throughout the season it’s been a case of hit one or two bad shots here and there and it’s like, ‘Oh, here we go again’ type of thing.”
Last week’s missed cut at Royal Queensland highlighted his struggles. After opening with a solid 69, Smith finished with a double bogey for a second-round 75, missing the weekend by four shots. The frustration was evident when he admitted, “I think it is in my head.”
It hasn’t been a matter of near misses, either. Smith has missed four of those seven cuts by three shots or more. Even in the no-cut LIV Golf League, his performance has dipped significantly. He managed just five top-10s in 13 individual tournaments, with his best finish being a tie for fifth in Mexico City.
“I do know what the answer is and that’s just to keep working hard and be patient,” Smith said in Brisbane. “I’ve tried to be patient, I’ve tried to do all the right stuff. It’s just, for whatever reason, not coming together on the golf course. I don’t think about golf often, but definitely in the last couple of months I have have thought about it a lot. Yeah. I just want to get back to where I was.”
The world ranking tells part of the story, even with LIV events not receiving points. Smith ended last year at No. 79 globally. Now, heading into his final tournament of 2023, he’s fallen to No. 354 – a dramatic drop for a player who was once ranked as high as No. 2 in the world.
