With Ashes cricket back on Aussie soil this summer, LIV Golf’s Ripper GC boys are taking guard – ready to dish out their best sledges, share a few swing thoughts and reveal which English golf stars they’d love to bowl to off the long run.
Australian Golf Digest: It’s a big year for Ashes cricket. We know you guys have a rivalry going with the Poms from Majesticks GC on LIV Golf. We want to know, who’s the biggest whinger among the English golfers?
Cam Smith: It’s definitely “Poults” (Ian Poulter). A million percent. And there’s nothing quite like a whinging Pom. He does it better than most.
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Lucas, if you’re coming off the long run, which Pommy golfer would you love to bowl to?
Lucas Herbert: Good question. Look, Poults has got a great target on his head there again, I think.
CS: Sorry, Poults! [Laughs]
LH: Having said that, I don’t know that I’m going to do much damage off the long run. Can I put the ball in someone else’s hands to bowl off the long run at Poults?
CS: You’re right, bowling at 75 kilometres per hour won’t do too much damage.
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Who is the best cricketer among the Ripper GC boys?
CS: “Leish” (Marc Leishman).
Matt Jones: Leish has a cricket pitch in his backyard, so it’s definitely going to be Leish.
Marc Leishman: I’d take the ball. Who’s going to bat? You’d probably bat, wouldn’t you, “Herbie”?
LH: Yeah. I feel like I can put a cricket bat in my hands, so maybe that qualifies me to open the batting. I don’t know; I haven’t seen you boys with a cricket bat too much.
ML: I’ve got the “go hard or go home” mentality. I’d probably make about 10 runs, [but] that 10 would come off about four balls.
LH: I think I could be annoying with the gloves behind the stumps [as a wicketkeeper], which would probably be my value-add.
CS: Hey, a good annoying ’keeper is always good.
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You’ve got a bit of an ’80s cricketer look about you, Smithy, with the mullet-and-mo combo. You give off serious Rod Marsh ’keeper vibes…
CS: I used to keep a little bit back in the day. I don’t know how I’d go now, to be honest. It’s definitely a skill that you need to practise. I feel like I’d get behind the wickets now and I’d have no idea what’s going on.
LH: I actually captained a club game in the LIV off-season. I did one club game and was wicketkeeper.
CS: Oh, yeah?
LH: Yeah. I let through six byes for the game. It wasn’t too bad. I’ll take that.
MJ: Not so bad at all.
LH: Yeah, I was pretty happy with that.
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In terms of cricketers that you’ve played golf with, who stands out for their ability on the fairways? Anyone take you by surprise?
LH: I’ve played with Ricky Ponting, and it’s not really a surprise to anyone that he’s a phenomenal golfer. He’s probably the best professional athlete that’s not a golfer to play golf, in my opinion. He’s very, very good. I haven’t played with Glenn Maxwell. I hear he’s pretty handy, though. I don’t know whether you boys have played with him?
MJ: Yes. He’s handy at falling off the back of a golf cart, too [laughs].
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OK, lads – let’s get to it: 2025 Ashes predictions. Are we going to smash the Poms again?
ML: The Aussies are looking pretty good at the moment. Their bowling attack – with Mitchell Starc, captain Pat Cummins (if fit) and Josh Hazlewood leading the attack – we’ve got so many [bowlers] to choose from. I reckon we’ll be really, really hard to beat.
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They’ll be partying hard if they retain the Ashes. Some others that did some serious partying last year were you guys after your LIV Team Championship victory. How would you describe the celebrations?
CS: We kept it pretty tame, to be fair.
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Define “tame”.
ML: It’s all relative.
CS: Yeah. We went to the pub and had a few beers and had a good night.
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A few?
CS: We had to get up and fly to Singapore the next day, so it was one of those, “You need to be careful” situations [laughs].
MJ: The party did continue on…
CS: Yeah, we had a few beers on the plane and when we arrived in Singapore it was so hot – I think we sweated it out within the first two hours of landing, so we were back to 100 percent.
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The end-of-season party had some interesting dress-ups, too. Who was best dressed?
CS: I think best dressed was (Leishman’s wife) Audrey, actually.
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You look embarrassed, Leish?
ML: Audrey dressed up as me. And I didn’t recognise her [laughs]. She came out and I actually didn’t recognise her. It scared the crap out of me because I looked at her and I’m like, “Who the hell are you?” And someone said, “That’s Audrey.”
LH: Yep. She was phenomenal.
ML: Yeah, and she kept it G-rated.
CS: My caddie Sammy (Sam Pinfold) did Ray Gun as well. That was pretty funny. There were a lot of solid outfits.
MJ: I’m going to plan a big one this year. A good costume. I’ll be prepared [laughs].
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Any hints, Jonesy?
MJ: You’ll just have to wait.
