Cam Smith’s slow start in Australian PGA Championship defence
Cameron Smith during his early morning round today – image Australian Golf Media
The defending and three-time Australian PGA Champion, Cameron Smith, has made a surprisingly disappointing start to the 2023 version of the event after his opening round of 73 left him ten shots off the early lead set by Spain’s Joel Moscatel Nachshon.
Smith, was off in the second group of the day from the 10th tee but struggled to take advantage of the relatively calm early conditions and after making the turn in even par 35 he was already falling well off the pace.
Dropped shots would come at his 16th and 17th holes, his round of 73 leaving the Queenslander needing a round of perhaps 3 or 4 under tomorrow to make it to the weekend and give his legion of local fans something to look forward to over the closing 36 holes.
Smith was clearly disappointed and upset given what were no doubt considerable expectations beginning the day.
“It was frustrating, upsetting,” said Smith. “Yeah, I really couldn’t get anything going, just couldn’t get it close enough to the hole. I felt like I’d hit a half-decent shot and it would go to 30, 40 feet and really not have a shot at birdie. Yeah, it was just scrappy.”
Just when he was hoping for a strong finish to get his round under par he would bogey his 16th hole (the par five 7th), Smith blaming the need to push too hard, the cause of a bogey on one of the easiest holes of the day.
“I just tried to hit the driver off the deck. That’s one of those things when you’re having a bit of a bad round, you try for a bit too much. It should have been three wood to the front of the green there and a chip up the green, but when you’re trying to chase something, yeah, it was just a bad shot in and left myself in a really bad spot. Ended up making bogey there on probably what’s going to be one of the easiest holes today. So yeah, frustrating.”
“I think this morning with the rain and the wind, the ball wasn’t going very far,” added Smith referring to the conditions over his opening few holes. “It was actually a little bit tough those probably first five or six holes, but then like you said, the wind really laid down and yeah, the greens are soft, so there’s no reason why you couldn’t have gone low from there. It was just pretty terrible golf.”
Smith knows he has a lot of work to do if he is to have any hope of working his way back into contention and was asked if he needs to be aggressive to do so.
“I’d like to think I’m just in general a pretty aggressive player anyway, but a lot of stuff to work on this afternoon to feel comfortable. It was getting to the point out there where it was just hard to really just commit to a shot. I felt like I was over the ball not knowing what I was going to do, which is a pretty bad place to be in on a golf course, especially when you’re trying to beat these guys.”
