A well-rested Cameron Smith says he is confident of bringing the same form to this week’s PGA Championship that saw him threaten to win the Masters at Augusta National last month.
The red-hot world No.4 played in the final group at the Masters with eventual champion Scottie Scheffler, but struggled in the final round to finish in a share of third. The 28-year-old admits he was utterly exhausted after Augusta, but wasn’t able to rest properly for two weeks given he played the following two PGA Tour events.
The five-time PGA Tour winner finally got his rest at the end of April and said it was just what the doctor ordered ahead of the year’s second Major, the PGA Championship at Oklahoma’s Southern Hills Country Club.
“I had a really good couple of weeks off; I had my cousin over from Australia,” Smith told Australian Golf Digest during a practice round at Southern Hills on Monday. “We hung out, played golf and did some fishing. It was nice to put the mind at rest.”
But Smith, who has won two PGA Tour events already this year including the prestigious Players Championship, has been back at work preparing for the PGA. “Last week I had my trainer and my psychologist over from Australia and we did some good work,” Smith said. “I also did quite a bit of work on the driver last week, so that’s starting to feel really nice as well. The whole swing is feeling sharp.”
Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma is a famous venue having hosted three US Opens and four PGA Championships before this week. The last Major it hosted was the 2007 PGA Championship, which Tiger Woods won in the sweltering heat back when the PGA was held in the summer month of August. It will play as a par-70 of 7,556 yards this week.
Smith said the undulations of the course, the clever bunkering and boldly contoured greens, which have some shaved areas around the greens, gave the Perry Maxwell golden age layout the feeling of an Australian golf course.
“It’s a great golf course, I’ve only played nine but typically these firm, fast and difficult courses suit a lot of the Aussies,” he said.
“It feels like maybe something in Sydney with the rolling hills. It’s a very well thought-out course, it’s not a bomber’s paradise.”
Smith will be joined in the field at the PGA by seven other Australians, including Cam Davis, 205 PGA Championship winner Jason Day, Lucas Herbert, Matt Jones, Min Woo Lee, Marc Leishman and Adam Scott. New Zealand’s Ryan Fox is in the field, fresh off finishing third at the DP World Tour event in Belgium last week.
