LIV Golf Chicago Final Day Cam Smith Post Interview

LIV Golf Invitational Series

Sunday, 18 September, 2022

Sugar Grove, Illinois, USA

Rich Harvest Farms

Cameron Smith

Press Conference

Q. Cam, can you take us through the round? You had a couple of bogeys on the front, you got a little bit of pressure, but obviously at the end you got the job done.

CAMERON SMITH: Yeah, I think it was quite frustrating at the start of the day. My warmup wasn’t fantastic. I didn’t feel like I was striking the ball as well as I had the first couple of days.

Yeah, I just kind of stuck in there. There was a couple of really poor shots off the tee that led to a couple of really soft bogeys on quite easy holes, especially that start where you want to get off to a pretty hot start.

Yeah, so it was frustrating, but just stuck in there good.

I think after that putt went in on 7 and then 8, I started to feel a little bit better about myself and kind of got the round going again.

Q. Did you know what was on the line team-wise on 18?

CAMERON SMITH: Yeah, absolutely. I said to Sam, my caddie, we need to drain this one for the boys.

Yeah, it was nice to get that done because I know it means a lot for those boys, but also the team standings for the end-of-the-year event. Yeah.

Q. Given that this is obviously the strongest golf event held this weekend in the world and you’re arguably the best player in the world and you just won an event, you’re not going to receive any world golf ranking points. How close do you think we are to a resolution to where players like you — you look at the field at Napa this weekend and I think you would have torn that up. How close do you think we are to a resolution here?

CAMERON SMITH: Hopefully close. I think for all the guys on the Tour, it would mean a lot to get World Ranking points.

I suppose there’s a lot on the line with the ranking points, getting into majors, stuff like that.

Yeah, there needs to be one quite soon, I think. The field here is strong enough and deep enough to where it warrants that, and hopefully it’s soon.

Q. How do you plan on celebrating tonight? What’s your plans?

CAMERON SMITH: I don’t know, probably — we can’t fit any beers in this trophy, so it’ll be a little bit difficult to drink out of this one. Yeah, just a couple of beers. Going back to Jacksonville tonight. Yeah, I’m sure it’ll be a late night.

Q. What kind of pressure, if any, did you feel coming out here? Obviously it’s only your second event, but obviously a highly rated player, a very big name to get. Did you feel any pressure to perform or even to win quickly?

CAMERON SMITH: Yeah, absolutely. I think probably that first event was the most pressure I’ve been under all year inside of an event.

I feel as though I needed to prove to myself and probably more so to other people that just because I’ve changed tours doesn’t mean I’m a worse player for it. I’m still out here to win. That’s what we’re all here for. Hopefully we can keep this going.

Q. I know you took part in the haircut promotion yesterday. Did you view that as good karma at all that they were doing that this week?

CAMERON SMITH: Yeah, not really. Talking about nerves, I was so nervous to cut Greg’s hair. I didn’t really want to stuff it up. I know he doesn’t have a lot left, so I had have stuffed it up, it would have taken him a while to bring that back.

Q. What’s the difference for you, winning an event like this in its first year versus winning events maybe on other tours with more established histories?

CAMERON SMITH: Yeah, I think once upon a time, everything had to start once upon a time.

I think for sure there is a history aspect that is for certain missing, but it doesn’t mean that the tournament is a bad tournament because of it. There’s 48 of the best guys out here trying to compete and trying to win. In 10, 20 years’ time, these could be the biggest events in the world. We’re just not there yet.

Q. You’ve been in the final group several times this year. You’ve come through more often than not. What are you leaning on in these situations, whether it be before the round, during the round, 18th green to get you through and help you perform your best?

CAMERON SMITH: Yeah, probably just the mental side, I guess. Obviously the game, the physical side of it, the game feels really good. That’s probably number one that’s important.

But like out there today, made a couple of bogeys, couple of really soft bogeys and it was quite frustrating, but just kind of stuck in there. You never really know what’s going to happen. You don’t know if someone is going to come from five or six behind and shoot 8- or 9-under. You’ve just got to keep grinding out birdies and holing really good par putts. I feel like that’s one of my keys to keeping a round going is holing those five-, six-footers for par and keeping the momentum going.

Q. You mentioned yesterday maybe if the wind was up it could get pretty tricky out here. It looked pretty firm, pretty baked out. How tough did it play today?

CAMERON SMITH: I think today was probably tougher than yesterday. There was a few dicey pins, and with the greens being the way they were, I’m sure they didn’t put any water on them overnight. They were really baked out.

When we’re playing four or five yards of rollout with wedges, that’s when you know they’re pretty firm, especially for us.

Yeah, I think it was a really good test. You hit fairways, you hit good shots into the green, you’ve got a putt that breaks and you need to hit a good putt for it to go in. You miss the fairway, you’re kind of scrambling your way up the hole trying to make 4.

Q. Cam, obviously you guys now go to Thailand and Saudi Arabia. How important is it to have a global calendar in LIV Golf?

CAMERON SMITH: Yeah, I think it’s fantastic. That’s one of the reasons why I came over here is to play golf around the world.

I think my time when I was a young professional over in Asia are some of the best times of my life. Traveling with good friends and playing really good tournaments was something I’ll never forget, and I’m really looking forward and really excited to what this Tour is going to bring to the golf world.

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