After a 4am alarm and what could only be described as first-hole jitters, Cameron Smith lived up to his billing as headliner for the Queensland PGA Championship with a hot first round putting him high on the leaderboard at Nudgee Golf Club.
The 2022 British Open champion Smith won more than $16 million in prizemoney on LIV Golf alone this year (excluding majors) but didn’t think twice about teeing up in a tournament whose total prize purse is $250,000. He is playing the Queensland PGA and another state-level event (the NSW Open, before the Australian Open and PGA) because he “thought it was a great opportunity to help out the Aussie tour.“
The 31-year-old teed off at 6:45am, Brisbane time, in the morning wave of Thursday’s opening round alongside the 2024 winners of his scholarship – Wesley Hinton and Kayun Mudadana. “My alarm was 4am. I did some stretching, ate crumpets with honey and had a couple of coffees … a nice nutritious breakfast,” Smith said.
Clearly feeling fans’ anticipation for Smith to compete in his own backyard of northern Brisbane, Smith made an opening bogey at the 10th (his first hole) at Nudgee. His drive went left into the water, but after a drop and a good approach to the middle of the green, he two-putted for bogey.
“Yeah I made myself a bit nervous,” Smith joked. “A really poor shot; bit of a nervy one to get underway.”
Smith rolled in his first birdie for day one at the 16th, then grabbed another at the 17th. The three-time LIV Golf champion and six-time PGA Tour winner then made four birdies on the back nine, including three consecutive from the fourth, to sign for a five-under-par 67. “There were just a couple of awkward tee shots, but from No.16 onwards I felt really comfortable with the driver and let it go and it was all really good stuff from there,” Smith said.
His final birdie of the day, at the 415-metre, par-4 came from a classy chip-in. “Yeah, I missed a few putts that could have gone in so maybe the golf gods giving me one back there,” Smith said.
At five-under, Smith was one shot behind Billy Dowling, the 2022 winner of the Cam Smith Scholarship, as well as defending Queensland PGA champion Phoenix Campbell, midway through first round play. Both shot 66.
“Yeah he’s a good kid, I love Billy … he was one of the shyest kids ever [during the Smith scholarship in 2022],” Smith said about the day one co-leader. “It’s good to see him playing really good golf lately,” Smith added. “It does make me a bit proud and I hope he can figure out what he wants to do and go about it his own way.”
Brisbane golf fans turned out well despite the brisk, early tee time and Nudgee GC looked like a great scene as fans walked in some of the fairways alongside Smith. The first two rounds of the Queensland PGA are not televised but the weekend action will be on Fox Sports/Kayo.
