By Frank Dalleres
Hong Kong holds some happy memories for Cameron Smith and the Australian will be hoping for a return to form when the LIV Golf League makes its debut on the island this week.
Smith has finished inside the top 10 just once in three outings on the lucrative circuit this year and was a lowly T41 at the most recent tournament in Jeddah last month.
It is in stark contrast to his previous results since joining LIV Golf, which included winning on just his second start and adding two more titles as he finished runner-up in the standings last year.
“In all of these tournaments [this year], there was lots of really good and probably just a little bit too much crap,” Smith said.
The former Open champion admits to struggling off the tee so far this season and the statistics back that up: Smith is 51st of 54 players on the tour for hitting fairways.
But this week’s visit to Hong Kong Golf Club could be just the tonic. He feels at home on a short course that he compares to those back home and should suit his iron and putting skills.
That has certainly been the case when he has played there before. Smith finished ninth in 2014, his first full season as a pro, and was runner-up last year.
“There’s no question that I need to get myself in the fairway more often. It’s been a club that’s lost us golf tournaments too many times,” he said.
Almost half of players in the LIV Golf League have sampled the course before but the only man with a better record is Ian Poulter, a winner there 14 years ago.
Smith added: “It’s a lot like Australian courses. You’ve just got to plot your way around. There’s no real reason to hit drivers and be up close to the pin.
“All the greens are really big tilts from front to back, very old school. Lots of big breaking putts. There’s a lot to like for me.
“You have to think into the greens. Around here, probably 4-5 feet above the hole is far worse than being 10 or 15 feet under the hole. You have to be smart.”
When he joined in 2022, Smith looked set for a rivalry with Dustin Johnson that would dominate LIV Golf but both were put in the shade by Talor Gooch and Brooks Koepka last year.
This season Johnson got back to winning ways at the second event, in Las Vegas, but the man to beat has indisputably been Joaquin Niemann, who took the other two titles.
Niemann now has three wins in his last six appearances on all tours, making the Chilean the form player in men’s golf and the favourite to prevail again in Hong Kong.
Or might a return to Asia produce the first winner from the continent of an individual LIV Golf title? An Asian champion has been notable for its absence in the first three years.
India’s Anirban Lahiri came closest when he lost a play-off with Johnson and Niemann in 2022, and his T6 in Jeddah last time out probably makes him the most likely candidate.
