Smith Boosts Hope Of Ending 20-Year Aussie Victory Drought At The Open

Cam Smith was one month short of his second birthday when fellow Queenslander Ian Baker-Finch captured the 1991 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.

That was 28-years ago and now Smith, who turns 26 on August 18th, has put himsel in frame to become the first Australian since Baker-Finch to be handed the famed Claret Jug.

Smith is contesting just his third Open and with scores of 70 and 66 for a five-under par tally he is right in the mix to be sharing 5th place and only two shots from the lead in the 148th staging of golf’s oldest Major.

“It was good round and it was very solid,” he said.  “Much the same as yesterday, really. A few more putts went in today. Feeling really confident with the putter, which has allowed my longer game to free up.

“It’s always good to be in contention any tournament, whether it’s a regular tournament or a major championship. And an Open Championship definitely it’s typically one I haven’t played my greatest golf in. It’s just nice to kind of get that feedback from everyone else I guess that I’m playing some decent golf again”.

Smith made his Open debut in 2017 at Royal Birkdale posting scores of 74 and 75 to miss the cut and a year later he played all four rounds but hardly made any impression to finish with a 10-over par tally for a lowly share of 78th place.

Now Smith finds himself heading to the weekend rounds of golf’s oldest major as the only Australian golfer to make the cut in the final major of 2019.

Though Smith’s form this season has not been much to write home about having contested 19 PGA Tour events with a best finish of a T9th at the Farmers Insurance Open but then it was his last event, the Rocket Mortgage Open in suburban Detroit where he grabbed a top-30 finish thanks to a final day 67 that gives him encouragement now heading to the weekend at Portrush.

“I’ve had a couple of weeks off to kind of refine something that I found a few weeks ago in Detroit. Yeah, the game is just doing nice,” he said.

“It just went away from — I was maybe a little too technical with my swing and just went back to trying to see a shot and hit it, which has been nice around here. You have to hit so many different shots.



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