Hoylake, England | We don’t know if Cameron Smith will play at Holick as he did at the Old Course at St Andrews a year ago, but what can be safely said is that his Monday press conference was light years away. The frenzied version that followed his Claret Jug win last summer.
On that day, the Aussie loved everything from walking to the 18th (even if he’d like to have a few more shots up his sleeve), to partying, to evening festivities at the Old Course Hotel. Furthermore, all was going well at his press conference until he was asked if there was any truth to the suggestion that he was “going to LIV.” Which, of course, was there.
Perhaps because he is not as good a liar as a golfer, Smith has gone on the defensive. Feigning shock, he said, “I just won the British Open and you’re asking me to. I guess it’s not nice.”
“I was actually holding back from crying. A little bit of a moment, I think, crept up on me.” – Cameron Smith
There was a repetition of the question, followed by more or less a repetition of the answer. “My team worries about these things. I’m only here to win golf tournaments.”
Then, there was that delicious moment when what must be a good friend in the press room came to his aid with a 180-degree switch of subject matter.
He asked, “Did you have Bolognese for dinner last night?”
And that was it.
On Monday afternoon at Royal Liverpool, Smith admitted no one, not even his manager, had warned him that the LIV question was inevitable.
“Inwardly, I probably knew you would be asked, but, yeah, no one was really there to support me, no one told me, ‘You will be asked this and that and this is what I will say.’” It was just my mind and heart telling me what I thought was right.”
Interestingly, Smith suspected that he would have reacted differently had he been more prepared.
He added that he had nothing against the person who asked LIV, and looking back, he seems to have come to the conclusion that he was “just a guy trying to do his job.”
If that sounds good to hear, that’s also what happened when Clarett brought the Jug back to R&A CEO Martin Slumbers on Monday. Last year, people were left with the impression that the Clarets jug was the equivalent of a game for the simple Australian rather than the famous historic trophy. He suspected he’d think twice when he brought it back, but, as he said, “I was actually holding back tears. A little bit of a moment, I think, crept up on me.”
Immediately, Smith had this feeling that he wanted him back.
“You know you can win it back,” said one writer.
Smith replied, “That’s what I used to say to all my colleagues.”
He has so many of those and how touching it was when, after winning a recent LIV Golf event at the Centurion Club near London, Smith spoke less of himself and his $4 million victory than about how badly he could have missed his $3 million win Another dollar to share among his fellow Reapers. As it stands, the four players only had $1.5 million to split between them.
Fellow Australian Adam Scott is one of Smith’s closest friends and always has been. Speaking at the Genesis Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club last week, Scott was upset when ggp He asked what he thought of Smith’s press conference last year in St Andrews: “He didn’t know he was going to win the Open Championship; it was embarrassing for him.”
Scott wasn’t at all surprised that people got the wrong impression of the guy.
“The truth is, it’s really fun to be around,” Scott said. “We’ve been good friends for years and we’ve never stopped coaching rounds in the majors. He’s an amazing golfer, probably the most competitive player ever.”
His answer was that the person was the same—he said he would get a clip around his father’s ears if it weren’t for him—and that his golf might have been a little better.
Here, Scott wasn’t talking about Smith taking money from him on those practice games. Rather it was the opposite.
“Cam plays poorly on training days and brilliantly when it counts,” the 2013 Masters champion laughed.
On the Monday before the World Open, Cam Smith was asked how Cam Smith the person and Cam Smith the golfer would rate a year after everything that happened to him. His answer was that the person was the same—he said he would get a clip around his father’s ears if it weren’t for him—and that his golf might have been a little better. He struggled with his Centurion driver, “but it all feels so close.”
On the grounds that Adam Scott’s assessment was likely spot on, the rest of us should probably ignore our training days and wait until Thursday to come to our conclusions.
Top photo: Tom Shaw, R&A via Getty Images
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