LOS ANGELES — Like the rest of us, Cameron Smith’s initial reaction to the bombshell news of the PGA Tour and Public Investment Fund’s plan to partner and form a new global golf entity was disbelief.
“I guess the first reaction was I thought it was kind of a joke that had come out,” said Smith on Monday ahead of the 2023 U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club, “and then (PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan) gave me a call and kind of explained what was going on.”
Al-Rumayyan – often referred to as His Excellency, or H.E. – made a short-and-sweet phone call to Smith around 10 minutes before his joint interview with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan on CNBC last Tuesday, but the details were sparse.
“He didn’t really explain too much. I think there’s still a lot of stuff to be worked out, and as time goes on, we’ll get to know more and more,” Smith continued. “But there’s definitely a lot of curious players, I think, on both sides as to what the future is going to look like.”
Talk about an understatement.
The bombshell news sent shockwaves through the golf world, and the topic of discussion will assuredly dominate the first few days in L.A. But much like last week at the RBC Canadian Open, when the tees are in the ground and the balls are in the air for Thursday’s first round, the golf will take the leading role and what a scene it will be.
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After a “pretty cruisey flight over,” Smith played seven holes on the front nine Monday morning but was surprised with the setup. This week at LACC may not have as much of that thick, signature USGA rough that players and fans have come to expect.
“It’s a little bit different here. I think the Bermuda rough, I think you can get kind of lucky or unlucky,” explained Smith. “There’s patches out there where they’re actually quite thin and you can get away with kind of a bad shot and other patches where if you’re in there it’s no good at all. I think that’s a little bit different.”
“I think the way you go through the hills there a few times, there’s lots of shots where you almost have to work the ball into the hill. It’s a really good challenge,” he added. “But I think that Bermuda rough is definitely a little bit different. Typically we’re playing in the northeast and get that really dense kind of wet rough.”
In other words, this week could play to Smith’s strengths. The former world No. 2 joined the upstart LIV Golf after a 2022 season that featured marquee wins at both the Players Championship and Open Championship at St. Andrews. The 29-year-old Aussie is a big-time player who often rises to the occasion, but that said, his past history in the U.S. Open isn’t anything to write home to Brisbane about. After a T-4 in his first U.S. Open appearance in 2015, Smith has since finished T-59, cut, T-72, T-38, cut, cut, but does boast six top-10 finishes, including three at the Masters.
“I’d like to think that I play my best golf around kind of tough golf courses. I know kind of my U.S. Open record isn’t that great. For me, the driver has always been the one club where it gets me in trouble in the U.S. Open and probably the PGA, the U.S. PGA. You have to drive the ball strong,” explained Smith. “I think that’s where a golf tournament can get away from me, but the driver is starting to feel really good, and I think there’s a few opportunities around here to make birdies, so I think that falls into my hands a little bit.”
As the reigning Champion Golfer of the Year at the USGA’s flagship championship, Smith was briefly stumped when he was asked to distinguish the difference between the USGA and the R&A before he filled the room with laughter by answering one is in the U.S. and the other the UK.
“The courses are definitely set up a little bit different for sure. I think for a long time, the USGA had in mind that par was going to be the winning score, and it’s definitely a bit of a brutal test,” he said of the each governing body’s approach to set up a championship. “For me personally, I love a golf course that sets up really difficult, but you can still go out there and shoot 5- or 6-under par and the winning score 10- to 15-under I think is a really good number.”
With little to no rain in the forecast for the week, Smith might just get his wish.
