Fear the mullet!
Better yet — fear that putter that Aussie Cameron Smith wielded like a man possessed all week at the Tournament of Champions.
Smith put on a four-day show on Kapalua’s Plantation course, including a closing eight-under par 65 on Sunday and emerged the winner in an intense head-to-head matchup with the world’s No. 1 — Jon Rahm.
By day’s end, both Smith and Rahm shattered the PGA Tour 72-hole scoring record set at this event on this course by Ernie Els in 2003 when the Big Easy shot 31-under par.
Smith’s birdie at the 18th got him to 34-under and edged Rahm (33-under) at the finish line. If that wasn’t enough, a crazy back nine run that included two eagles by another Aussie — Matt Jones — got him to 31 under and all that got him was third behind Smith and Rahm.
“Mate, it was intense. Jonnie and I played well the whole day,” Smith explained. “We had Matty (Jones) in the group in front lighting it up, as well. So, yeah, unreal round, something I’ll never forget for sure. We spoke about it earlier in the day. We wanted to get to 35-under. We missed it by one. So, I mean, in that sense, disappointing, but it’s great to come away with the ‘W,” Smith said in somewhat of an understatement.
It was a pure mano-a-mano showdown on the par 73 Plantation course, rendered defenseless with hardly any winds on three of the four tournament days along with left-clean-and-place rules for the first 36 holes.
“When you come to a golf course where the only defense is wind, just, at least you expect 20-miles per hour here, and we usually shoot 20 to 26 under and win the tournament. And you get the same golf course with no wind, what do you expect? You have 50-yard fairways, soft greens, we’re going to shoot low. It’s just kind of how it goes,” was how Rahm explained the scoring barrage by the entire field. “It felt really strange to shoot 33-under and lose by a shot,” Rahm added. “Those first six holes are where I lost the most amount of shots. I shot seven-under, he shot eight-under.” Rahm also said he was most pleased with his iron game but added he’s still warming up for the coming season. “It’s still far from where I want it to be.”
Rahm spoke about the first six holes. The hole that made the one-shot difference was the short par four fourth. Rahm pulled his tee shot into the thick, high native grasses, chopped out then stuffed a wedge to four feet from 63 yards out to save par. On the other hand, Smith, from 118, hit his approach to five feet, made his first birdie of the day, got ahead of Rahm by a shot and never surrendered that lead the rest of the way. That singular hole was the difference maker on a day where neither player made bogey.
As for Jones, winner of the 2021 Honda, he went on a silly back nine run to insert himself into the conversation. First, he jarred a wedge shot from 85 yards for eagle at the 13th, then saw his second to the par five 15th settle inside four feet and he made his second eagle of the inward nine. Just for good measure he ran in a 51-footer for birdie at 17 then closed with birdie for 30 on the par 37 back nine and a 61. Jones shot 62-61 (23-under) on the weekend and still didn’t win. He finished 32-under to make the top three finishers all breaking Ernie Els scoring record.
Patrick Cantlay knocked off the rust from his long layoff and played well enough to shoot 26-under and finish solo fourth. His score beat last year’s winning total (25-under) by Harris English. Collin Morikawa started getting his game prepped. He closed with 62 Sunday and tied for fifth with Justin Thomas and Daniel Berger at 25-under.
But this show belonged to Smith, runner-up at last year’s Masters and he will now jump into the world’s top 10 when the new rankings come out this week.
He’s perhaps the Tour’s most under-rated player. But when he drives it well, he can light it up with that putter.
Fear the mullet!
3 Comments
baxter cepeda
If there is a course and tournament that it’s kinda ok for these crazy scores to go down it’s Kapalua and the TOC.
But still, the fact 3 men broke the all time pga tour scoring record on the same week is clear evidence Coore and Crenshaw dropped the ball recently when the talented design duo renovated Kapalua; as the course clearly needs a lot more new challenges than just one small bunker in the middle of a giant fairway.
St Andrew’s is basically a resort course. But What makes st Andrew’s great is that old adage that one day a golfer wonders why a bunker is even there only to realize why the next day when the wind dies or changes direction. Kapaluas design needs more of that subtle genius of The Old Course.
Kapalua definitely needs a lot more pickles Out there regardless of condition. It’s gotten too easy even in traditional to tough conditions trades.
Simply designing for trade winds in Hawaii is a mistake, especially when the best players regularly compete on a track. It’s pretty obvious by now both Kapalua and Sony enjoy a lot of calm wind days or light Kona wind days during the year, but especially during these tournament weeks. Come to Hawaii in March and then you can expect a steady diet of brisk trade winds. But it’s not always like that. In fact it’s Usually not like that this time of year.
Rolf questioned a few years ago if trades are even the norm in Hawaii in January anymore.
Yes equipment, you tube, gyms and so much more have conspired to make scoring go too low, but the reality is course design is to blame just as much. Ernie shot 31- under ages ago at this same track. That’s because this track has been long overdue to add some challenges to this course.
That being said congrats to puttings version of the Natural in Cam Smith, Rhambo, and the fastest man in golf Jones for all beating Ernies scoring record. As far as a birdie fest is concerned, that was pretty good. But man this tournament would be even better with a few more pickles mixed in.
Tom Edrington
Don’t tell anyone in St. Andrews that it’s a “resort” course, you might find yourself in a fight…..or worse, KO’d by an angry Scot
baxter cepeda
I get that. But if I remember right I think they address it that way in the documentary movie on St Andrew’s.
And btw I don’t like the Opens being set up so fairly. Especially at the Old Course where the set up has been way too fair. As the oldest major and course, it should be more rugged. Tougher. Like it used to be. I think the Royal port rush setup was by far the best Open setup in memory.