Cameron Smith has been left licking his wounds after enduring the most “brutal” day of his major championship career at the British Open, shooting an 80 for the first time in one of golf’s four biggest tournaments.
In 33 majors stretching back nine years, the 30-year-old Queenslander had never before suffered an indignity like Thursday’s opening round at Royal Troon as he carded a nine-over par round.
A bogey on the opening hole and a triple-bogey seven at the second primed Smith to eclipse his previous worst round in a major – another nine-over par round of 79 at the 2018 US Open at Shinnecock Hills.
Yet this one may have felt even worse, with his nine bogeys and a triple coming in the company of the inspired Shane Lowry, the 2019 champion who swept into second place, recording a flawless 66 – no less than 14 shots superior to the Australian’s calamitous effort.
His round rules out any realistic chance of Smith, who has been playing well on the LIV tour, now regaining the Claret Jug he won at St Andrews two years ago.
“Just a bad day, really. If you had have told me yesterday that I was going to shoot that, I wouldn’t have said that was possible,” said Smith. “But yeah, just a bit of a crappy start and didn’t really manage to hole any putts when I needed to to get back in it. Had some bad breaks as well.”
In reality, it could have been worse as Smith eked out two birdies over the final three holes to offer himself the tiniest consolation. Playing alongside two major champions in Lowry and Matt Fitzpatrick at least pricked his champion’s spirit.
“It was really hard if you ask me. If you ask Shane, it would probably be a different story,” said Smith of their respective rounds. “No, it’s hard, mate. A lot of crosswinds. Hard to keep your ball in the fairway, and when you’re in the rough, you’re kind of guessing with landing something short with the bounces you get.
“It was brutal, it really was a good test of golf, and you needed to be on your A-plus game to shoot under par, and I witnessed it. Shane played good.”
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After driving out of bounds at the second, Smith shrugged: “There was a lot of golf left after that point. Anything can happen. I’ve done it before. I think it was actually on the second hole, as well, where I’ve tripled, and gone on to win the golf tournament.
“There’s a couple of things that roll over in your mind just to boot you in the butt and get you thinking. But yeah, it was just a brutal day, really.”
What was doubly frustrating was that he reckoned he had been “quietly confident” after finishing sixth last week at Valderrama in Spain, one of a series of top-10 LIV finishes he’s enjoyed recently.
“I’ll just go out there and try and shoot a really low one to get to the weekend. It’s a big task, given the golf course doesn’t really hand you a lot of easy shots out there,” shrugged Smith. There’s nothing else I can do to change it up. It was just a bad day.”