Cam Smith finally had his breakout season in 2022.
GOLF.com/Darren Riehl
Remember once we thought a pandemic season two years in the past was loopy? Man, 2022 had all of it. The return of Tiger Woods, the founding of a controversial golf league, the disappearance (and reappearance) of one in all golf’s most beloved figures and a lot extra. But now let’s take a breath. Here, we’ll look again (and look forward) on the 10 most memorable moments of 2022.
No. 5: Cam Smith’s breakout year
The season that modified Cam Smith’s life started in earnest with the shank that almost undid it.
Smith clung to a precarious lead as he stood on the sixteenth tee field on Monday on the Players Championship. He was up by three strokes, however a charging Anirban Lahiri and Paul Casey had utilized some strain. Even par by the treacherous closing stretch could be sufficient to shut issues out, however getting to even wasn’t promised.
In the normal taste of TPC Sawgrass architect Pete Dye, every of the Players’ three closing holes — 16, 17 and 18 — makes an attempt to goad gamers into round-altering errors. On No. 16, hazard looms down both aspect of a slim chute, however a good drive will be the distinction between an eagle look and a snowman. For Smith, barring a loopy improvement, a par was all however assured.
But then he swung his driver.
At influence, Smith’s tee shot on the sixteenth seemed like an egg dropping from a second-story window — a hole crack that known as for a right away recoil. The ball had barely began its ascent by the point Smith reached out to the left to point its route.
The shot was a catastrophe. The ugliest, nastiest tee shot anybody in the ultimate few pairings had hit all day. “That is a … quacker,” David Feherty chimed in hopelessly because the ball ricocheted into the bushes. In all, his tee shot traveled 179 yards. If not for a handful of pleasant pines, it might need traveled simply as far in the fallacious route.
Eventually, Smith reached his ball to search out himself the recipient of the luckiest break of the event: a hole in the bushes large sufficient to advance the ball again into the golf green. A couple of minutes later, Smith struck his shot cleanly out of the pine straw, and the remainder is historical past. He would go on to win the Players by two strokes, profitable in emotional vogue in entrance of his household, who returned from his native Australia for the primary time for the reason that starting of the pandemic in time for the event.
Little did he notice that a few months later, the discovered expertise from the sixteenth gap near-disaster would come in useful. In late July, Smith discovered himself clinging to a late lead once more on the Old Course at St. Andrews in the a hundred and fiftieth Open. He’d simply made 5 straight birdies to vault from “out of contention” to “solo leader,” beautiful the Old Course trustworthy in the method. After blasting his drive on a excellent line on the seventeenth gap, Smith performed his strategy a membership too brief. He confronted a nasty chip — over the famed Road Hole bunker — in order to protect his lead. This time, although, he hardly blinked.
From the greenside, Smith pulled putter and whacked his ball again onto the security of the inexperienced. Then, from 10 ft, he drained the par putt for good measure.
That would show to be the distinction for Smith, who claimed an Open Championship victory over Rory McIlroy for his first main win, ascending to the No. 1 rating in the world in the method.
Cam Smith slammed an iron. What adopted on the Open was unforgettable.
Nick Piastowski
“I think, to win an Open Championship in itself is probably going to be a golfer’s highlight in their career,” stated Smith, grinning ear-to-ear. “To do it around St. Andrews, I think is just unbelievable.”
Unbelievable, and as it could end up, very essential for Smith, who departed simply weeks later to LIV Golf for a reported $100 million payday, his newfound main championship exemptions undoubtedly enjoying a function in the choice.
“For me, the PGA Tour is a great place,” Smith stated later. “It’s a great tour that does really good things. But as you look back, Adam [Scott] has been one of the best golfers in the world for 20 years and I just think it’s really weird for them [PGA Tour] to not have an event [in Australia] just because of him,” Smith says. “Then you have Jason [Day], Marc [Leishman], there’s a bunch of guys they could have done so much for. The Aussie crowd gets around it so much … But I just don’t think it’s that profitable for them and that’s kind of the reason behind it all.”
He performed the autumn season for LIV, tapping a cool $7.3 million on prime of an already-profitable 2022, and rode off into the sundown with a season-closing victory on the Australian Open.
It was that sorta year for Cam Smith, who watched as his Midas contact turned supernova. The 29-year-old could by no means attain this stage of success once more, sure. But then once more, with some $12 million in on-course earnings in 2022, he could by no means have to.
Thank god for that shank.
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