An emotional Cameron Smith couldn’t recall enjoying a worse spherical of golf in his skilled profession and he broke down in tears after crashing out of the Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland on Friday.
Already 10 pictures off the lead after Thursday’s first spherical of 73, defending champion Smith’s title defence went from unhealthy to worse throughout a horror 18 holes in Brisbane.
Bogeys have been piled on high of extra bogeys because the hometown hero and match drawcard shot an terrible seven-over par 78 in a second spherical that included six bogeys, and a double bogey on the par-four, 443m tenth gap.
The 2022 British Open champion completed the match at nine-over par, 9 pictures behind the reduce line of par.
Lower than 10 gamers within the 156-strong area fared worse by the opening two rounds, with Smith ending a mammoth 21-shots behind the chief, Perth’s Min Woo Lee, who shot a second-round 66 to maneuver to 12-under and one forward of Adam Scott, who shot 65 on Friday after his first-round 66.
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“It’s shit,” he mentioned.
“I’ve carried out beneath strain earlier than, it’s simply unacceptable – it’s very upsetting really,” a teary Smith mentioned after lacking the reduce.
“I’m positively getting a bit drained in direction of the top of the yr however that’s golf, that’s not an excuse.
“Australia’s been so good to me even when I’ve been drained so there’s no motive to actually carry out that manner.”
When requested if he might bear in mind a worse spherical throughout his skilled profession, the 30-year-old LIV star mentioned “no”.
“I had a very good vary season (on Thursday) and I used to be really feeling fairly good this morning as effectively, however for no matter motive I simply couldn’t actually decide to what I used to be doing,” he mentioned.
“There have been plenty of sneaky pins and I simply bought on the improper facet a bunch of instances, and attempting to do a bit an excessive amount of I feel.
“I do know what I’m doing, it’s simply going on the market and committing to one thing is one other factor. It’s very irritating.”
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Smith is hoping for redemption subsequent week in Sydney on the Australian Open, a title he’s but to win.
“That’s the constructive about two weeks in a row – you get a couple of days to arrange and type some stuff out,” he mentioned.
“I hope that I can put it collectively for subsequent week and put up a minimum of a greater exhibiting than that.”
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