Cameron Smith hits out at ‘B.S.’ talk that LIV stars ‘don’t play proper golf’ as Orlando event starts on Friday – and provides a tune-up before the Masters
The third LIV tournament of the season got underway in Orlando on Friday night.
The mystery is whether such outings are sufficient to shake the rust from the breakaway tour’s big names ahead of their reintegration to elite golf next week.
There will be 18 LIV golfers playing at the Masters and six are past champions, but form is with none of them.
Cameron Smith, who remains in the world’s top five, is best placed to make a run at Augusta, where the Open champion has four top-10s in his past five attempts.
And yet since he won the Australian PGA Championship in November, he has played only four tournaments, missing cuts on each of the Australasia and Asian Tours and finishing fifth and 24th in the limited fields of the season’s two LIV events.
Cameron Smith is lining up in Orlando on Friday ahead of next week’s Masters in Augusta
Smith is eager to put on a positive display at Augusta to try and silence the LIV critics
It is hardly a smoking trail, even if he was bullish ahead of his first round at Orange County National.
‘Most of us will get four cracks at it this year (in the majors), and hopefully we get a win out of it,’ said Smith.
‘Maybe we just show a really hearty effort. There’s a lot of chatter going around about, “These guys don’t play real golf anymore”. And it’s B.S. And we just want to show people that.’