Cameron Smith in action this week – photo Stacy Revere Getty
Australia’s Cameron Smith has won two events on the PGA Tour but in 24 hours it might just be that he adds a third and, if he was to do so, two of those will have been the same event.
Pairing with Marc Leishman at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans (a two ball teams event) Smith and his partner are just one behind the 54 hole lead held by Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel with the foursomes format to be played tomorrow.
Smith and Leishman added a third round of 63 in the fourball format today, the same score they recorded on day one when the fourball format was also in use.
Four years ago, Smith teamed with Jonas Blixt to win his first PGA Tour title and while his first individual win would come nearly three years later at the Sony Open in Hawaii, he is poised to potentially add yet another US$1 million + to his significantly growing bank account.
Both players contributed a similar amount of birdies on day three and although the foursomes format in tomorrow’s final round offers less opportunity for low scoring, they are a great chance to run down the leaders on day four.
Smith was asked after his round whether his win with Blixt in 2017 might assist tomorrow.
“I don’t think so. I mean, the course is so much different to what it was when we won,” he responded.
“Obviously we’ve both been up at the top of leaderboards a fair bit lately, so I think just on our own experiences I think that’ll help a lot. But we’ve just got to knuckle down and basically do what we did today. We played really good golf today.
Leishman summed up the day and the position they are in; “Well, I didn’t play my best golf on Friday. Found something on the range yesterday afternoon with particularly my wedges, and if I could play a little better — Cam is playing great, putting great.
“I’m feeling a lot better over the ball today than I did the first two rounds, so if I can play good, Cam keeps doing what he’s doing, I think we’re a good chance. But a lot can happen in foursomes, and so many other good players up at the top of the leaderboard.
“A lot has to go right, but hopefully we can do our job and make some birdies and give the guys ahead something to think about.”
