Connect with us

19th Hole

Cam Smith reveals the element of LIV Golf that ‘scared’ him the most

Published

on

The will-he-won’t-he saga of Cameron Smith joining LIV was put to bed in August last year, with the former world ranked number two explaining his reasons for joining the rebel tour.

Scheduling, playing in his home country, team events and, of course, around $100 million were all motivating factors according to the winner of the 150th Open Championship, but he also had a minor doubt.

In a recent interview with Straight Down The Middle’ish podcast, the 2022 Players Championship victor said:

“Probably one of the biggest things I was scared about was the shotgun start. 

It worked so good. We were off at the same time every day, everyone’s playing in the same conditions [and] sure it’s a bit of a shit show before the round getting guys out to their tees and stuff but it’s only 10 minutes.”

It seems the only negative according to the Australian star, winner of his third Australian PGA Championship last November, who enthused about his ultimate in career decisions:

“It was definitely a big decision [joining LIV], but I feel as though I definitely made the right decision. I’ve played five or six events out there and the way I’ve seen it progress over that short period of time, it’s going in the right direction. The fans love it.

“I think there’s a lot more for people to do out there. It’s a fun time. The way I would describe it is that it’s more like going to a sporting event than a golf tournament.”

With the major season soon to begin with The Masters, the four-time Augusta top-10 star is confident that he can better his efforts from 2020 and 2022, two occasions when he could have easily turned a silver and bronze medal into gold.

“Yep. I feel like that’s my next one [The Masters] that I really wanna tick off. I genuinely feel like I’ve played my best golf around Augusta, it just hasn’t lined up.”

“You know, when you win a tournament, you get a lucky bounce or the putts just fall in.”

Whilst the PGA Tour and LIV Golf are involved in a legal battle over the banning of ex-PGA players, at the end of last year Augusta National confirmed they would allow “those eligible under our current criteria to compete in the 2023 Masters Tournament.”

That should mean seeing the likes of former champions Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson and Sergio Garcia tee it up alongside Smith, at Tea Olive – the first hole of the 87th Masters Championship, on April 6th.

More from the 19th Hole

19th Hole

‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

Published

on

An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.

However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.

Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.

Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”

Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.

Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.

Continue Reading

19th Hole

How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

Published

on

Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.

Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.

Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.

Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.

Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.

“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course.  Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”

According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.

“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”

Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.

Check out Young’s winning WITB here.

Continue Reading

19th Hole

Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

Published

on

Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.

Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.

Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.

The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.

Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”

“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”

Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.

However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.

“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”

Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.

Continue Reading

WITB

Facebook

Trending