Australian golfer Cameron Smith undaunted despite individual title drought in 2024

SINGAPORE – The 2024 season was an anomaly for Cameron Smith, who failed to win an individual title, a first for the Australian golfer since 2019.

While he led Ripper GC to LIV Golf’s team championship title last campaign, Smith finished second six times in individual tournaments, including two play-off defeats at LIV Hong Kong and the PIF Saudi International.

But the 31-year-old is unfazed by his winless run and believes that his day in the winner’s circle will come.

When asked what he needed to adjust to end the streak, he said: “Not much really. I think I’m doing a lot of good things at the moment and I’ve been working really hard.

“I’m just waiting for it to all come together. I’m not trying to put too much pressure on myself or expect too much of myself – just really getting out there, letting it go and trying to play some really good golf.”

Smith was speaking to the media in a virtual call on March 4, ahead of LIV Singapore, which will be staged at Sentosa Golf Club’s Serapong Course from March 14 to 16.

Ripper won the team title in Adelaide and Singapore last season, besides the prestigious team championship in Dallas last September.

Noting the progress with his long game, the 2022 British Open champion hopes that the work he has put in will pay off, although he reiterated that the focus is not on results.

On what his targets for the year are, he said: “My goals every year are to make myself a better golfer.

“I’ve always been a process-orientated person, I don’t really like to set goals like win a certain amount of tournaments or a Major or anything like that.

“It’s always been what can I do today to make myself better and then let the results take care of themselves.”

The Australian is also not too bothered about the ongoing merger talks between the Saudi-backed LIV Golf and the PGA Tour, since the two tours announced a shock proposal in June 2023 to settle the feud in professional men’s golf.

While there is an air of optimism with US President Donald Trump getting involved in the negotiations, LIV golfers can, meanwhile, look forward to featuring in two of the year’s four Majors, after the British and the US Opens announced in February direct qualification paths for players from the rival series.

Asked what he hopes to see from the union of the two rival series, Smith said: “I really don’t know, to be honest. I’m really happy where I am, I’m really happy where LIV is going. We’re making some really good strides, particularly of late.

“My main focus is just making LIV as a product, and my team, the best product it can be, that’s all I’m really focused on. Whatever comes of it, comes of it, but we’ll still be here going strong.”

One thing that he has enjoyed since making the jump to LIV in 2022 is playing in different places that he did not get the chance to compete in when he was on the PGA Tour, whose tournaments are mainly in North America.

Apart from the United States, the 2025 LIV season includes stops in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Australia.

The 2022 PGA Tour Player of the Year said: “We’re just going to go to different places, places where professional golf hasn’t been in a while or a professional golf league.

“Something I really enjoy is bringing golf to some places that haven’t seen us play in a very long time.

“I think we’re doing a lot of really good stuff – we just kind of need to keep doing it and fine-tuning it. Everything’s just going in the right direction at the moment.”