By Matt Smith
Fresh from winning his third Australian PGA Championship title, Cameron Smith is targeting yet more glory to sign off on a career-best year at the ISPS Handa Australian Open at Victoria and Kingston Heath golf clubs this week.
Smith claimed the Australian PGA crown for a record third time on Sunday at Royal Queensland Golf Club in front of a raucous home Brisbane crowd, but he is not resting on his laurels as he goes again on Thursday hunting back-to-back titles in Oz, and a maiden Australian Open trophy.
The 150th Open champion started the year with a victory at the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii, and he is hoping to end 2022 in similar style in Melbourne.
“It would be a really nice way to finish off a really good year,” Smith said. “The plan was to come down here and win both of them and I ticked one box and hopefully can do one more this week.”
“I think these golf courses (Victoria and Kingston Heath) are a really good mix between links golf and almost like Augusta,” Smith said. “You get to play plenty of shots, you have to, to play good golf around here. I feel like I play my best golf when I’m creative and I’m just happy to be down here.
“I think as a kid growing up playing the amateur stuff down here and stuff like that, you take it for granted. You go everywhere else around the world and realise that this is the best that golf has got to offer. It’s just cool to be back down here. I think the crowds will be enormous and I just think it will be a good week.”
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