Bloody Ripper

Cameron Smith’s Race to #1

A. M. Bailey

“From the moment I met him eight years ago, I knew he was different gravy. He has a look in his eye that tells you he’s going to stand and deliver.” That is exactly what Cameron Smith did at the 150th Open Championship played at the Old Course in St Andrews.

With the crowds gathering around the course all eyes were set on McIlroy’s first major win since 2014. However, on Monday morning the crowd’s favour turned to watch our Aussie fight back with 5 birdies in a row to start the back 9. Smith, leading by one over local favourite Rory McIlroy, half-chunk his approach shot on the famous and difficult 17th hole. It left his ball behind a famous pot bunker that protects a famous green that runs near perpendicular to the fairway and parallel with a famous road and old stone wall.

Smith’s answer was simple: roll the ball onto the green, then roll the ball into the hole. The mood had suddenly changed, the crowd went silent and their eyes along with millions watching at home widened. And yet the 28-year-old Queenslander shot 64, the lowest-ever final round to win an Open Championship at St Andrews and finished 20-under to claim his first major championship by one shot from American Cameron Young.

His total career winnings, since joining the professional tour in 2013, is officially $39,167,869. That’s not including sponsorship deals and endorsements.

Adam Scott, Jason Day, and Marc Leishman are the only Australian golfers to surpass $50 million in career winnings to date. The way he’s going, Smith should be joining his compatriots on that list within two years. Three of them now have one major victory to their name – Smith’s Open joining Scott’s 2013 Masters and Day’s 2015 PGA Championship silverware Down Under.

To finish off an unbeatable day for our Aussie, he remarked after capturing the Claret Jug, “I’m definitely going to find out how many beers fit in this thing’. He did just that, ending a night that he will never forget with, “I guess everyone’s been asking how many beers fit in the Claret Jug, it’s pretty much exactly two.”