‘Devastated’ Cam Smith makes huge change after emotional split

Smith left last month’s Masters completely disillusioned with his game, rounds of 74 and 77 ensuring the Australian missed his sixth major cut in a row.

Only four years ago, Smith was ranked second in the world and the reigning champion in two of the five most important titles in the game: The Players and The Open. He has now not played a weekend in one of the game’s four biggest tournaments since the 2024 US Open at Pinehurst. It’s been a jarring decline for a golfer with such natural flair and a delicious short game, but Smith has been adamant that “the fire is in the belly” and he’s been working tirelessly to try and turn things around.

In a candid interview with TG in January, Smith rejected theories that he has softened as a competitive force since joining the LIV Golf League in the months after his famous win at the Old Course in 2022.

“It’s frustrating because I don’t think if I was playing anywhere else, the results would have really changed,” he said during a LIV Golf season preview event in Florida. “I think people see average play aligned with changing a tour or not working hard enough. It really couldn’t be more the opposite.”

So after leaving Augusta National, a wounded but determined Smith chose to take a different direction completely as he began preparing for this week’s test at the PGA Championship.

“I was pretty devastated,” he tells TG, reflecting on the Masters after finishing his first practice round at Aronimink. “I feel like I’ve put in a lot of hard work over the last year and a half and I’ve just got absolutely nothing out of my game, so it’s just time for a change.”

That change came within Smith’s coaching setup. As first called by Australian journalist Evin Priest, the mulleted major winner has turned to revered coach Claude Harmon III in a bid to arrest his swing woes. Harmon, the son of the game’s most famous coach Butch, first linked up with Smith on LIV, where he also works with Dustin Johnson.

“It’s just a bit of a different outlook,” Smith explains. “It’s not rocket science. I got to a point where I was thinking so many things in my golf swing that I couldn’t hit the golf shot, which is never a fun place to be. He just really simplified it and made me think one thing rather than a thousand.

“It’s starting to feel good and starting to feel like I can actually commit to some shots and hit some different shots, so it’s coming along nicely. Claude spends a lot of time out on LIV with DJ. He’s obviously got a wonderful reputation.”

In joining forces with Harmon, Smith also had to make the incredibly difficult decision to part ways with his longtime swing coach Grant Field, whom he has worked with since being a schoolboy.

“It was a terrible, terrible conversation to have,” he says. “I’ve been seeing Grant since I was like nine years old, and he’s a really good friend as well so it was tough, but I feel like I’ve done the right thing for my golf. I think what I’ve done is right.”

Smith and his many supporters will hope the introduction of Harmon will prove a turning point on the biggest stages after his time in the wilderness. The 32-year-old’s undeniable strength even through this malaise has been his creativity around the greens, so he’s well-placed to negotiate what he describes as “super funky” putting surfaces here at Aronimink this week.

“I just need to go out there and do it,” he said, “and get some confidence back.”