[Photo: Getty images]
Cameron Smith won’t allow himself to daydream about becoming a Masters champion until it happens, but that doesn’t mean Australian fans can’t imagine the moment. The thought of Smith’s blond mullet dangling over the neck of Augusta National’s famed green jacket is enough to make any Aussie sports fan laugh. Even Smith himself finds the question entertaining.
“No (laughing),” Smith said at Augusta National. “That would be cool. I desperately want to win one, and I think it would be the best one yet. But I haven’t thought about the mullet and the green jacket together.”
Smith, 31, is hoping to become just the sixth golfer in history to win both the Open Championship at St Andrews and the Masters, following Tiger Woods, Nick Faldo, Jack Nicklaus, Sam Snead, Seve Ballesteros and Zach Johnson.
Watching Smith join an illustrious club of multiple major winners from Australia would be a monumental moment. Yet each of the five Australians in the field would stop the presses and trigger a tidal wave of back page news stories. So, what would be the most iconic way for each Aussie to win? Let’s have a think:
Min Woo Lee
Lee is Australia’s biggest rising star, due to his social media antics – “Let him cook!” and “Dr Chip-in-ski” – but also his recent breakthrough PGA Tour win at the Houston Open. That win proved his sublime golfing talent measured up to his online popularity. How could Lee break the internet with a Masters win? Well, imagine if Lee was tied for the lead coming up the 18th at Augusta National, and missed the green with his approach, then chipped in for birdie and a Masters victory and performed a viking clap for the gallery. Lee, 26, is a showman, as we saw when he pretended to use AimPoint technique to read a four-inch putt to win the Houston Open. There would be chaotic scenes if Dr Chip-in-ski made a house call on the 18th on Sunday (Monday AEST).
Jason Day
Day is arguably second to Greg Norman as the most talented and dominant world No.1 male golfer Australia has seen, evident in his seven wins from 17 starts across 2015/’16 seasons. That run included a breakthrough major title at the PGA Championship. These days, the Queenslander is known as an ultra-cool veteran who is arguably the best-dressed on the PGA Tour. Day’s Malbon apparel sponsor regularly has him looking like “James Bond walking through Monte Carlo getting a cup of coffee,” Malbon Golf founder Stephen Malbon told this publication last year.
Fans of Day would love nothing more than the 37-year-old to walk up the 18th wearing chic sunglasses and the loudest, most Avant-garde outfit that Masters tournament officials would allow. Then, Day would use the trusty red TaylorMade spider putter that delivered so many winning putts in his 2015/’16 prime to drain a long-range birdie on the 18th green and let out a primal scream.
Day on Tuesday at Augusta National. Photo: Getty
Adam Scott
Australia’s only Masters champion already delivered a “where-were-you-when-it-happened” victory at Augusta National in 2013. Like Day and Smith, Scott is hoping to become a multiple major champion with a Masters win. Scott suffered plenty of heartbreak and nerve-wracking moments in the majors, including losing a four-shot lead with four to play at the 2012 Open Championship and a pulsating playoff to win the 2013 Masters among others. It would be phenomenal for the 44-year-old to be in the final group on Sunday and hold a five-shot lead into the back nine. Typically, the leaders tee off from No.1 just before 5am Monday morning AEST, meaning it would be around 7am when Scott would reach Amen Corner (11, 12 and 13) hopefully with a sizeable cushion to enjoy victory march towards history. He deserves it.
Cameron Davis
Davis collected his second career win on the PGA Tour at last year’s Rocket Mortgage Classic, two weeks after he added a hypnotherapist to his support team. The lanky lad from the northern beaches of Sydney is also a sublimely gifted athlete who can execute a scratch-level golf swing left-handed (watch below). For Davis, who is a quiet, humble and intellectual guy, it would be amazing for him to have a loud and ESPN Sports Center-quality Masters victory by blocking his tee shot on No. 18 into the trees, then have to turn an iron upside down and hit a dramatic, left-handed approach shot around a group of trees that settles three feet from the hole and allows Davis a tap-in birdie for a one-shot win.
We can dream. And if we’re going to dream, let’s do it properly. Happy Masters week.
