Not that Cameron Smith came from nowhere, but his career took a 360-degree turn, a skyrocket, this Sunday on the Old Course at St. Andrews. When the cradle of golf, Cathedralwas preparing to invest champion of the 150th British Open to Rory McIlroy in what would have been a fairy tale, the picturesque Australian with the mustache and the ‘mullet’ took over the party with a historic return that catapults him into eternity: -8 to -20.
His 64 shots represent the best result of a champion in the last round of this major, surpassing the 66 signed by Zach Johnson, also in the legendary Scottish course, in 2015. But it is that they also gave him to tie the lowest score in the history of the greats, the -20 with which his countryman Jason Day won the 2015 PGA, the same as Dustin Johnson in the 2020 Masters and Henrik Stenson in the British of 2016.
Everything seemed headed for a hands and hands between McIlroy, the fan favorite, and Viktor Hovland, the smiling Norwegian who was trying to get his country into the select Grand Slam club. They came out in the main game from -16, after drawing on Saturday playing together, but none of them carbureted. Rory shot 70 strokes (-2 for -18, no bogeys but two meager birdies) in a flat lap, at half throttle, and finished third, his eyes red with disappointment. It hurt to see him. Hovland, for his part, fell to fourth position with a +2 to -14, only one birdie in the entire lap. This Sunday may not have given him a major, but he has surely taught him many things. Among others, how to manage emotions when everyone seems to want the guy you have next to you to win.
From behind the duo appeared Smith like a shark smelling blood. You couldn’t sense him raising the Claret Jug after the first nine holes (-2), but in the second half of an Old Course, which without the intervention of the wind is already having a hard time containing the modern golfer (there were 139 laps below 70 goals, although they are 30 fewer than last year at Royal St. George’s, an all-time high since 1946), he ate up the distance. Everything was forged in a succession of five birdies between 10 and 14. No one can bring down from the top the man with the swing as smooth as honey, undaunted from start to finish, a metronome when he goes out to hunt flags. If at any time he was able to break it was on 17, the famous ‘Road Hole’, in which he hits the start over the Old Course Hotel. He missed the green and had no room to work the chip, so he pulled a rabbit out of his hat, kicking up the slope 60 feet from the hole and playing with the contour. He left her ten feet away and put her in.
That’s where the tournament ended despite the fact that Cameron Young, a rookie who had already been third in the PGA this year, was about to force the playoff after going from -7 to -19, including a desperate eagle in the last hole that did not work because Smith, by then already with the fairway shared by 1 and 18 covered by a mass of spectators, birdied it. Young finished second and confirmed that for him there has been no solution of continuity between Korn Ferry, the American second division, and the elite, but he could not avoid the first coronation of a aussie at British since Greg Norman, LIV’s now-maligned CEO, triumphed at Muirfield in 1993.
Smith has nothing to do with cocky Greg. “He has all the great toys and he is still the same,” says his mother. This year he won The Players, with a check of almost 3.5 million euros (until the emergence of the Saudi Super League, the highest stake in history) and the PGA Tournament of Champions with a historic display: -34 for the lowest result with respect to par in the history of the American circuit. He was also second at the Masters, beaten only by a entranced Scheffler, though he became the first to complete four laps under 70 at Augusta National.
He is very fond of cars, so he recently bought a Lamborghini, but above all he is seen with a Nissan GT-R whose license plate reads ‘hoonigan’, an expression of the slang Australian for those in love with racing. He is also fond of fishing, and his yacht is called ‘Tin City’ because tintin in English, is the material from which beer cans are made. Even in the name it is original: until now no Cameron had managed any of the four appointments that together with the Ryder Cup define this discipline. “I feel like I can’t breathe,” he said with a smile in the St. Andrews press room. “This place is amazing. I love the countryside and I love the town. Winning an Open is already probably the highlight of a golf career. Doing it in St. Andrews, just amazing,” she celebrated.
The son of a printing worker and a furniture saleswoman, he is not your typical country club boy, but a golfer from the town. And the town that lit up golf for the world has given it its first major 50 editions after doing the same with fellow countryman Kel Nagle, who won the centenary in exactly the same place. What sport.
spanish trigger
A British to remember was orphaned by Spanish prominence. If Pablo Larrazábal missed the cut, letting himself go with a +9 to +12 on the second day, things did not improve over the weekend. Neither Jon Rahm, nor Sergio García nor Adri Arnaus managed to keep the pulse of the lead train and by Saturday night they were already without victory options.
On the last lap there was no noteworthy performance. Arnaus stayed even and with +1 in total, Sergio shot +1 for -2 and Rahm, -2 for -7 on a day that began with bogey-double bogey and knew how to redirect with five birdies from 5 to 18. bomb came when Sergio García passed through the mixed zone, who announced that he is giving up his European Tour membership because he no longer feels “loved” and from now on he will only play at LIV. Rahmbo, who was sorry for the possibility that the man from Castellón will not play in the Ryder Cup again, of which he is an important piece of history, assured that he does not leave St. Andrews with the feeling of a “thorn stuck” and that his The head will be in his family for the next few weeks, since his wife Kelley is about to give birth for the second time. On his next agenda he has the Spanish Open (October 6 to 9), but in principle he will not go to a Valderrama that last year left him “melted”. He closes the majors campaign with a 12th at the US Open as his best performance. It is his first year without a top-10 in the greats since 2017.
