{"id":381969,"date":"2024-04-04T22:35:50","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T22:35:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=381969"},"modified":"2024-04-05T02:03:55","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T02:03:55","slug":"normans-timely-advice-for-desperate-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=381969","title":{"rendered":"Norman's timely advice for 'desperate' Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

G\ufeffolf<\/a> legend Greg Norman<\/a> is confident fellow Aussie Cameron Smith<\/a> can bounce back from a disappointing summer to contend for next week's Masters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Smith was the biggest drawcard for Australia's two flagship events in November and December – the Australian PGA Championship and the Australian Open.<\/p>\n

He bombed out of the PGA in Brisbane – where he was the reigning champion – and spectacularly missed the cut.<\/p>\n

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The following week he performed better but still finished tied for 17th in Sydney, shooting 7-under around The Australian as fellow LIV Golf star Joaquin Niemann took the title in a Sunday playoff.<\/p>\n

\ufeffSince that underwhelming trip home Smith has finished runner-up in an LIV playoff in Hong Kong, and then taken a three-week break to prepare for the sport's most iconic event at Augusta National.<\/p>\n

\"Greg<\/p>\n

Norman believes Smith is nearing his best once again.<\/p>\n

"Every golf player – I don't care if you're male or female, the best in the world or the worst in the world – you're going to go through your tough periods," he told Nine's Today<\/em> on Friday.<\/p>\n

"It's a given, it's a tough sport, it's going to give and it's going to take from you.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2024 US Masters golf live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a> from April 12-15.\ufeff<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

"Cam is young enough and he's got a lot of pride about him. He wants to come back, he wants to produce what he knows he can produce in winning the British Open.<\/p>\n

"He's got the Masters coming up next week… all the ingredients are there for him to start stepping back and getting the confidence level he needs.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

Smith won the Open Championship at St Andrews – arguably golf's second most prestigious event behind The Masters – in 2022.<\/p>\n

He climbed to No.2 in the world but then jumped ship to sign with Norman's LIV in a switch that earned him a $140 million sign-on bonus, but cost him the ability to accrue rankings points and therefore the chance to reach No.1.<\/p>\n

The other downside to playing the LIV tour rather than the PGA or \ufeffEuropean circuits is the smaller fields and shorter tournaments.<\/p>\n

There's an argument these factors make it harder for LIV defectors to compete in the four majors – although Brooks Koepka put paid to that notion last year by winning the PGA Championship and finishing runner-up at The Masters.<\/p>\n

A number of Smith's best career performances have come in the biggest events.<\/p>\n

\"Smith<\/p>\n

He's recorded four top-10 finishes at The Masters in seven attempts to date, including a tie for second in 2020\ufeff and a thrilling final-round shootout with eventual winner Scottie Scheffler in 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Norman himself finished runner-up at Augusta three times, but the green jacket eluded him.\ufeff<\/p>\n

And if Smith can win next week, he'll become only the seventh golfer to record both a British Open and a Masters win\ufeff in their career.<\/p>\n

Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Sam Snead, and Zach Johnson are the only players on that exclusive list.<\/p>\n

"It'd be unreal. The Open at St Andrews is pretty special. To double it up with a green jacket would be unbelievable," Smith told Australian media this week.<\/p>\n

"I desperately want to get it and it would be awesome if I did\ufeff."<\/p>\n

Smith will be one of six Aussies contesting next week's Masters.<\/p>\n

He and 2013 Masters champion Adam Scott will be joined by countrymen Jason Day, Min Woo Lee, Cam Davis, and Jasper Stubbs\ufeff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

G\ufeffolf legend Greg Norman is confident fellow Aussie Cameron Smith can bounce back from a disappointing summer to contend for next week's Masters. Smith was […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":381971,"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\/381969"}],"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=381969"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":381974,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381969\/revisions\/381974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/381971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=381969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=381969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=381969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}