With Cameron Smith, Talor Gooch and Bryson DeChambeau preparing to battle it out for the LIV Golf Individual title at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club this weekend, the leading Australian (170 points) and Gooch, his closest rival (164), put on a pals’ act as they took part in a Q&A with the media

Q: As the individual season is reaching its climax this week in Jeddah. Can you tell us how you’re feeling this week going into the final event of the season?

CAM SMITH: “Yeah, it’s a good spot to be in. I think everyone out here wanted to probably be in our position at the end of this week, so it’s definitely a good spot to be in.

“I know we’ve had a couple of weeks off since Chicago, didn’t play my best there, so a couple good weeks of practice and feeling good going into this week.”

Talor Gooch. LIV Golf

TALOR GOOCH: “Yeah, like Cam said, going back to the first tournament of the year, if you could have told me, hey, this is where you’re going to be coming into the last event, you’d take it. In a good place, and like Cam said, had a couple weeks off and was able to get a little bit of practice in— I didn’t practice for this heat, but that’s just — you know what you’re getting into this week.

“Yeah, excited for the week and ready to have a good one.”

Q: “Cam, you’re our points race leader coming into LIV Golf Jeddah. Consistency has really been a key for you this year with six top 10s, two wins in London and Bedminster. Can you talk us through this year and really flying the flag for Australia with your Ripper team?”

CAM SMITH: “Yeah, it’s been good. I think from a team perspective, we could have done a little bit better, but we had a good win there in Bedminster, and I think that sets us up for a nice week in Miami. Miami has a lot of similarities to the course there, so we’re feeling really confident going into next week.

“For myself, yeah, consistency has been good. I probably didn’t get off to the greatest start to the season, but a lot of hard work and a lot of digging deep to get those couple of wins, and yeah, it’s really nice to be in this spot. Hopefully I can finish it off this week.”

Q: “Talor, some takeaways for you this year. You’re currently second in the standings, had some great success abroad winning in Adelaide, Singapore and Andalucía. Can you sum up your 2023 LIV Golf season and playing in some of these global destinations?

TALOR GOOCH: “Yeah, if you would have told the beginning of the season I would have had three wins, I obviously would have taken it. It’s been a culmination of years of hard work and patience. I’ve never won three times in a season as a professional golfer.

“You know, it’s been a great year. We’ve played great. I played really well last year, and I couldn’t close out some tournaments.

“Some of that experience of failing last year I think kind of set me up to succeed for this year when I was in those same positions. `Just continuing to build confidence and comfort coming down the stretch is something everyone is striving to do, and having done it, you just get more and more comfortable with it.

“It’s been a great year, and hopefully we can cap it off with a great week this week.

Q: “There’s so many scenarios in play about how you guys finish and how it works out against everybody else. Do you go into the tournament thinking you’re going to have to win to nail this down, or are you looking at any of those scenarios?”

CAM SMITH: “I think that’s kind of the mindset every week is to come here to win, so I don’t think it’s really any different to any other week. For sure there’s a little bit more up for grabs this week. You have to acknowledge that and really get on your toes and just try and go out there and win the tournament.

“I think it’s the same as every other week. But yeah, more stuff to play for.

TALOR GOOCH: “Yeah, I keep telling everybody, you just know that the two of these guys are going to have a good week this week, and the only way to know that you’re going to get the job done is just to go and win.

“I’ve used the term a lot the rule of 67. I’m just going to control what I can control, try and shoot 67 and lower each day and see where the chips fall.

“I know the only scenario that I have control of is if I go and win and that takes care of everything, and kind of like every other sport, winning kind of takes care of everything. That’s the goal, and that’s what we’re going to try to do.”

Main image: Cameron Smith. Andy Cheung