The Open 2023: Cameron Smith ‘holding back from tears’ ahead of defence

The fourth and final major of the men’s season is upon us with The Open set to get underway at Royal Liverpool Golf Club on Thursday and Cameron Smith was one of the early arrivals on the Merseyside coast.

The Australian, who controversially switched over to LIV Golf in the wake of his victory at St Andrews last year, got straight to work preparing to defend the title that he won in nail-biting fashion over Cameron Young and Rory McIlory.

Before Smith could truly get into the groove and begin going through the motions, the 29-year-old had to do one thing, hand back the famous Claret Jug to the R&A, and he admitted the emotion of the moment caught him off guard.

“I thought I was going to do all right, but I was actually holding back from tears,” Smith said in his pre-tournament press conference.

“A bit of a moment, I guess, that crept up on me.

“I wasn’t like not letting it go, but it was just a bit of a moment that I guess you don’t think about and then all of a sudden it’s there, and, yeah, you want it back.”

The Brisbane native, who is coming into this week off the back of a victory at LIV Golf’s London event at the Centurion Club where he edged out Patrick Reed by a shot, is determined that his separation from the Claret Jug is only temporary, confidently suggesting to those closest to him that celebrations could well get underway again come Sunday night.

“I’ve been saying to all my mates, ‘It’ll only be a week and we’ll be drinking out of it again’. You never know, sometimes you can play your best golf at major championships and you can run fourth or fifth.

“Hopefully it’s another week like last year and I’m back with the trophy.”

It may seem like a bold statement to some but Smith is seeing improvements in his game and honing in on elements that brought him so much success in 2022, that also included The PLAYERS Championship title.

“I think as a golfer, I think I’m actually a better golfer now than what I was last year. I think the stuff that I had to clean up is progressing. It’s still a little bit of a work in progress. I said this morning to someone that my 5-iron and up has always been a bit of a struggle for me, and that’s an area of the game that we’ve worked probably harder than we have in the past.

“I feel like it’s right there. It just all has to come together.”

The last time The Open was held at Royal Liverpool in 2014, a certain Rory McIlroy hoisted aloft the trophy which has fuelled the hopes of a repeat this week, especially with the Northern Irishman fresh off a win at the Genesis Scottish Open.

The question was put to Smith if he fancied another final round battle with the current World No.2.

“There’s plenty of guys here that, given their week, can be right up there on Sunday afternoon.

“I’m sure Rory will be one of them. He’s played great golf the last few months here. It looked like he finally got one on and it may have opened the floodgates for him for sure. But yeah, it would be a cool story for sure.”