Words: Release & Paul Prendergast
Photo: Australian Golf Media
Cameron Smith has won his third Fortinet Australian PGA Championship in five years to continue to build on his magnificent 2022 season.
The 29-year-old Brisbane native joins some of Australian golf’s all-time greats in winning the Joe Kirkwood Cup three times – including Kel Nagle, Norman Von Nida, Peter Senior and Ossie Pickworth. He also emulated fellow Queenslander Adam Scott’s 2013 achievement by returning to his homeland to great fanfare as a reigning major champion to claim the Australian PGA Championship.
Smith shot a closing 68 at Royal Queensland, 3-under par, and posted 14-under par overall to win by three shots from Western Australian Jason Scrivener and Japan’s Ryo Hisatsune on 11-under.
Scrivener threatened to rain on Smith’s parade in shooting a superb final-round 67 but a double-bogey at the 17th hole – where he putted from the front fringe into the deep bunker beyond the pin – cost him his chance.
Smith’s win capped a fantastic week for fans, tournament organisers in both Australia and via the DP World Tour and the players alike, the first tournament in three years where the bulk of Australia’s leading male golfers have been able to tee it up on home soil.
Throughout, there were moments of brilliance from plenty of local up and comers and especially so in the final round, some life in ‘old dogs’ and past champions Greg Chalmers (66) and Geoff Ogilvy (65) to show the kids they’ve still got it. However, it was Smith the local fans were clamouring to see this week and he did not disappoint.
Beginning with a three-shot lead over playing partners Yan Wei Liu of China and Masahiro Kawamura of Japan, Smith made a nice birdie at the second hole but then had to scramble for pars the rest of the front nine. At the par-3 11th, which had also been his nemesis the previous day, Smith came up short of the green and made bogey to concede a share of the lead to Scrivener and the brilliant 20-year-old Japanese professional, Hisatsune.
The threat of lightning drove players to shelter for more than an hour and when they came back, the horn blew again after just nine minutes of play. Almost an hour passed before they could resume and at this point, Smith had seemingly regathered himself to close the deal.
At the par-4 12th after he tugged his drive left, he hit a sublime flop shot over a Banksia tree in his path and rolled in the birdie putt to reclaim the outright lead with another birdie from close range at the par-4 13th providing him with a two-shot buffer.
Following Scrivener’s implosion at the 17th, Smith calmly rolled in another birdie at the 16th which was the trigger for the Joe Kirkwood Cup engraver to begin his work.
A tearful Smith later paid tribute to his grandmother, Carol Smith, who has been battling cancer and enduring chemotherapy but who walked all four rounds with him as a spectator. “I can’t believe she did it,” he said. “Everyone at the start of the week was telling her to pace herself. It’s pretty amazing and definitely inspiring.”
Smith has won the Sentry Tournament of Champions and the Players Championship, the 150th Open Championship and a tournament on the LIV Tour this year in addition to today’s victory, one of the most prolific winning seasons ever by an Australian.
Adding a maiden Australian Open title to his increasingly bulging resume in Melbourne this week would provide the icing on the cake.
