‘I’m a Queensland man’: Cameron Smith channels Maroons spirit as Australian shrugs off knee injury to shoot his best-ever opening round at The Open
- Cam Smith appeared to suffer a knee issue in the opening round of The Open
- Australian carded a five-under-par 67 on Thursday at St Andrews
- The first round score is his best-ever start at The Open
- Smith shrugged off his niggle and said he expects to recover quickly
- Fellow Aussie Min Woo Lee finished three-under-par in the opening round
Cameron Smith has played down injury concerns and raised hopes of a long overdue Australian British Open triumph with his best start yet to the links-course major.
Smith fired a stylish five-under-par 67 to sit three strokes shy of American clubhouse leader Cameron Young midway through the first round at St Andrews.
Smith offset a lone bogey with six birdies to once more put himself in the mix for an elusive maiden major following a third at this year’s Masters and tie for 13th at the US PGA Championship.
Cameron Smith finished the opening round of The Open with a five-under-par 67
The world No.6 reached the turn in three under with birdies on the second, fifth and seventh holes and sandwiched his only dropped shot on No.11 with further birdies on 10 and 12.
Smith’s injury scare came on the par-5 14th when he grabbed at his knee after hacking out of deep rough.
‘I’m fine now but it just felt like I got a little bit of a hyper extension in the back of my knee,’ he said.
‘It lasted a couple of holes but I’m a Queensland man – I’ll get over that pretty quick. Just a little niggly for 10 minutes and it went away.’
The Australian survived an injury scare when he seemed to suffer a knee injury
Despite the fright, Smith avoided dropping a shot with a lovely approach with his second out of the rough, then iced his round with a sixth birdie after driving the short par-4 last.
‘It’s nice to get off to a hot start any week, really,’ he said.
‘But these majors, the tougher the course gets, especially around here, how it’s going to get really firm and really fast, it’s almost going to be like holding on, I think, on the weekend.
‘So nice to get out there and shoot a number and get myself well under par.’
The Queenslander was particularly pleased with his putting game on Thursday
The 2022 Players champion was especially pleased with his putting.
‘Hit lots of good lag putts today. It was probably some of the best lag putting I think I’ve ever done,’ Smith said.
‘My putt on the second managed to go in from a fair distance. That was pretty decent.
‘But I had so many. Seemed like I had so many 80, 90, 100-footers out there today and did a good job of getting them down in two.’
Smith’s score of 67 is his best ever in the opening round of The Open
Min Woo Lee was the next best of the Australian morning starters after taking advantage of his early tee time to post a three-under 69.
Lee double-bogeyed the par-4 third but reeled off three birdies and an eagle to briefly claim the clubhouse lead.
‘It was a good recovery, a great recovery,’ he said.
‘The one thing I haven’t been good at is bouncing back from bad shots. So hitting nine iron into the next hole and making birdie there kind of kicked off the round.’
Fellow Aussie Min Woo Lee finished with a three-under-par 69 in the opening round
Lucas Herbert also enjoyed a promising start to the 150th Open, carding a two-under 70.
Brad Kennedy caught fire with seven birdies in his first 14 holes to reach three under late in his opening round.
Former runners-up Adam Scott and Marc Leishman, who lost a three-man play-off last time the Open was staged at the home of golf in 2015, both had afternoon rounds with American LIV Golf rebel Dustin Johnson.
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