{"id":366283,"date":"2024-02-08T18:44:01","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T19:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=366283"},"modified":"2024-02-08T20:02:45","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T20:02:45","slug":"desperate-smiths-olympics-dream-about-to-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=366283","title":{"rendered":"'Desperate' Smith's Olympics dream about to crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cameron Smith<\/a> has admitted he's at a "disadvantage" compared to his compatriots in the race to book an Olympics<\/a> berth he "desperately" craves.<\/p>\n

Smith's world ranking continues to slide as the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) continues to renounce LIV<\/a> as a bona fide professional league.<\/p>\n

Generally speaking, each nation is allowed only two players for Olympic representation, although the USA could have as many as four given eight of the top-15 ranked men are American.<\/p>\n

EXCLUSIVE:<\/strong> 'Proudest moment' led Gagai to end All Stars boycott<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\ufeffREAD MORE:<\/strong> Roosters rocked as star's code switch confirmed<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\ufeffREAD MORE:<\/strong> 'Insane' age gap created by teen's Opals call-up<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Smith became the top-ranked Aussie man following the 2021 Masters<\/a>, a mantle he held until only last December when Jason Day<\/a> finally usurped him.<\/p>\n

\"Cameron<\/p>\n

\ufeffSmith and Marc Leishman, who are now teammates on the all-Australian LIV team Ripper GC, were the two \ufeffAussie representatives in Tokyo.<\/p>\n

Smith is still Australia's No.2, although he is at serious risk of being pipped by Min Woo Lee before the June 17 deadline.<\/p>\n

Depending how well Adam Scott<\/a> and Cameron Davis play before then, they may both also leapfrog Smith.<\/p>\n

However, the 2022 British Open<\/a> champion does still have three majors \u2013 The Masters, the PGA Championship<\/a>, and the US Open<\/a> to score rankings points and boost his chances of competing in his second-successive Olympics.<\/p>\n

"It's a bit of a disadvantage compared to the other Aussie guys," Smith told SEN on Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

"But I really want to be there. I'll try and prepare as good as I can for those majors."<\/p>\n

Smith gave his rankings points a small boost when he finished second in the Hong Kong Open on the Asian Tour, which is ironically supported by LIV, in the weeks leading up to the Australian swing.<\/p>\n

But in his home event at the Australian PGA in Brisbane, \ufeffSmith spectacularly missed the cut after he put up a dismal Friday performance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Smith<\/p>\n

The following weekend at the Australian Open in Sydney, he at least made the weekend but still only finished in a tie for 17th.<\/p>\n

They were his two most recent rankings events. Smith has ruled out playing in any more Asian events.<\/p>\n

The OWGR is the sole qualification criteria for the Games, meaning Smith is not the only big name who could miss out on a spot in Paris.<\/p>\n

Tyrrell Hatton was in a tight battle with Tommy Fleetwood and Matt Fitzpatrick for a spot on the England team before signing with LIV for this season.<\/p>\n

\"Cameron<\/p>\n

He, too, will have only the three majors to earn points.<\/p>\n

Smith admitted the qualifying criteria was unlikely be changed at such short notice, but he believed officials "know without knowing" he deserves to be picked.<\/p>\n

"They have already set criteria for that and I am not sure they are going to change it to suit me," he said.<\/p>\n

"We'll see what happens, but I desperately want to be in Paris."<\/p>\n

Smith will take part in the second LIV event of the year at the Las Vegas Country Club this weekend, the third round of which will be competing for air-time with the Super Bowl being played just a few kilometres down the road at Allegiant Stadium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cameron Smith has admitted he's at a "disadvantage" compared to his compatriots in the race to book an Olympics berth he "desperately" craves. Smith's world […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":366285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366283"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=366283"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":366289,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366283\/revisions\/366289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/366285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=366283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=366283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=366283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}