Cam Smith opens up on LIV Golf hiatus amid Open | Golf News
Cam Smith has relished LIV Golf’s sudden break as he tries to remedy his swing woes (Image: Warren Little/Getty Images)
Cam Smith acknowledges LIV Golf’s unplanned break arrived at an opportune second as he seeks to recapture his kind and declare The Open Championship for a second time.
The rival circuit is nearing the conclusion of a seven-week midseason hiatus during its financial troubles. LIV scrapped last month’s deliberate event stop in Louisiana amid vital uncertainty surrounding the league’s future.
Competition returns in England next week.
Smith, the 2022 Open champion, stays a vocal supporter of LIV, but personally, he has welcomed the lowered schedule.
Claude Harmon III has been tasked with fixing Smith’s ‘Peter Pan’ hook (Image: Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
The Australian enlisted the help of famend coach Claude Harmon III in May to resolve a droop that had plagued the earlier two seasons.
The former world No. 2 was a constant challenger at the majors before his technical difficulties surfaced, but with the benefit of appreciable downtime – he has competed only in the US Open since the LIV season paused – he believes he is positioned nicely for Royal Birkdale this week.
“A few weeks off was actually quite nice,” he told the Mirror US. “I feel like we played a lot of golf in a short period of time.
“I really wasn’t too offended at having a few weeks off, to be trustworthy. Work on the swing, and work on the adjustments in the swing with Claude. A pair of weeks to mattress that in has been fairly good.
“It feels good. I think there’s still a ways to go. It feels like I’m getting back to playing golf and not so much golf swing, so that’s a good thing.”
Does the 32-year-old consider he’ll contend this week? “Definitely,” he replied. “The last couple of years have been a bit of a struggle, and confidence has been an issue.
“But it just looks like I’m enjoying golf again and not considering so a lot out on the golf course. You cannot play when you are considering about your swing, so for sure, the boldness is getting back up there.”
Royal Birkdale has been baked by a heatwave in recent weeks, leaving the course parched and delivering firm, fast conditions for the season’s final major.
Though far from his homeland, Smith is hoping the expertise he developed on Australia’s sandbelt courses will prove valuable this week.
“You can see a lot of similarities, and you possibly can also see a lot of the other stuff as nicely,” he said. “Like the longer tough grass, we do not actually have at home.
“The firmness and fastness, for sure, is right up there with the sandbelt, so I’m looking forward to trying to play some of that golf out here.”
Smith will launch his bid for a second Open Championship title at 7:14 a. m. ET on Thursday, stepping onto the tee alongside Keith Mitchell and novice Stuart Grehan.
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