After major season failure, LIV star motivated to find his old self

He’d rather be fishing, wouldn’t he?

Cameron Smith has often made it seem that way.

Never mind his big wins at TPC Sawgrass and the Old Course at St. Andrews. Forget the fact that he was once the No. 2-ranked player in the world. The Aussie star has long sounded like a man who prefers hooking bass to bagging birdies.

That was partly why he left for LIV in 2022, shortly after winning both the Players Championship and the Claret Jug that year. He said he was tired of relentless travel. He wanted a looser schedule, more time to lounge around Down Under, more chances to cast his line into the currents.

Golf? Smith liked it well enough. But he spoke of it as something he could largely take or leave.

At last week’s LIV Golf UK, though, the laidback 31-year-old with the party-in-back locks struck a different tone. He expressed fiery feelings about the game while lamenting his own recent performance—specifically, his lackluster showings in the majors. Smith missed the cut in all four of them in 2025 (he was the only player who teed it up in all four to do so), making it five straight majors in which he has failed to survive into the weekend.

“Yes, it sucks to play bad in tournaments that probably mean a little bit more than others,” Smith said, via Golf Digest Australia at JCB Golf and Country Club in Midland, England. “I think it’s probably more of a mental issue than actual technique. But this year, the major results weren’t good.”

By Smith’s chill beach-vibe standards, his comments practically counted as a rant. He had cause to be disgruntled. Prior to his recent string of missed cuts, which started at the 2024 Open Championship at Royal Troon, Smith had built a reputation for shining on big stages. Between 2020 and 2024, he notched seven top-10 finishes in majors, including his Open Championship win.

Since joining LIV three years ago, Smith has enjoyed flashes of success on LIV, with three individual titles (his team, Ripper GC, also won the Team Championship in Dallas in 2024). But he hasn’t won a title on the breakaway circuit since LIV Golf Bedminster in 2023.

While Smith’s talent has never been in doubt — he had a standout junior career in his home country and won the 2013 Australian Amateur — his willingness to grind is another matter. It has frequently come under question. Smith himself has long acknowledged that he is neither a gym rat nor a range rat.

But motivation, Smith said, is not an issue these days. His 2022 Open Champion title came with a five-year exemption into the Masters, the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open, so his spot is safe in the majors until 2027. But the time to start getting sharp is now.

“The motivation is at an all-time high to get back to where I was, and even better than that,” he said. “So a bit of a change in attitude and I’ve been really focusing on the mental side … There’s no reason I can’t finish this season strong.”