Cameron Smith

Cameron Smith walked onto the 17th tee on Monday at the Players Championship and hit the best shot of his life. Or did he?

You want to be on whatever side of the spine the pin is on, because the green will funnel it in that direction. Smith also, as was mentioned on the broadcast, hit more club that most others on that hole: A knockdown 9-iron, whereas most were hitting a full pitching wedge. Smith said afterwards that he was “probably aiming 10 feet left” of the pin, which was a bit of a throwaway comment that shouldn’t taken too literally. “It drifted right and then held its line at the end … heart was in the throat there for a second.” You can hit a bad shot and still avoid disaster if you aim in the right place. But the combination of a blazing-hot putter and some wily course management meant he still walked away with the trophy ( and $3.6 million!). His shot into the 17th green on Monday afternoon was the perfect encapsulation of both these things, and there’s a lot we can learn from it.

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Had to make a lot of good par putts as well there at the end. He said: “It’s really cool to have them here. Birdies at the 10th and 11th holes saw Keegan Bradley join Smith and Casey at the head of the field as rain started to fall, and a three for Hovlund at 14 increased the pack to four, but Smith picked up shots at the 10th and 11th to lead from Casey and Bradley at 11 under. My main priority really was just to hang out with them and golf was second for these few weeks. And yeah, it’s definitely the strength of my game. It kept me in it.

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However, he dunked his drive at 17 into the water, the resulting double-bogey dropping him back to three-under. However, the Indian battled his way way back superbly, with a birdie at the 9th and an eagle at 11 torpedoing him back into contention. It could have been better for Power who, starting on the 10th, hit an early hot streak, with four birdies in six holes between the 11th and 16th carrying him to five-under overall. Lowry ultimately wound up in a tie for 13th on six-under. Hovlund had slipped back to eight under with a five at the 12th as Lahiri hooked his tee shot at the par three eighth and had to take a drop, eventually carding a double bogey. Smith faltered with back-to-back bogeys at the seventh, eight and ninth holes and playing partner Casey, having reignited his challenge with a birdie three at seven, reached the turn with a bogey and another birdie to take a share of the lead on nine under par.

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I just made too many mistakes, from the fairway too. The K Club-attached touring professional has opted to skip this week’s Valspar Championship but will make a debut appearance in next week’s WGC-Dell Technologies Matchplay Championship. Needing a chip-in to extend the tournament still further after numerous weather delays, the Indian – using irons given to him by Graeme McDowell – came up just short to claim solo second place. That dropped shot, though, was but a blip in a round that featured no fewer than 10 birdies as he moved to a career-best sixth in the world rankings. A cheque for €3.3 million winged its way into the Australian’s bank account after a remarkable final round for Smith which started with four straight birdies and then featured three bogeys in succession, from the seventh. In this latest edition of The Players, though, it was his shot-making and putting prowess which separated him from all others as a closing round 66 for a 13-under-par total of 275 in the weather-delayed flagship event on the PGA Tour gave him the biggest win of his career.

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“He thinks back to a time when he beat them,” Price said. “Then I started crying.” And Cameron? “He had a bit of a giggle. Cameron Smith would sleep well Monday night, in a bed of his own. “His self-belief is everything. Cameron gets a kick out of the stories about his grandfather, but his toughness is a product of more than that. I think that's kind of instilled in all of us.” He finally had to accept that it was just too far, and set about making a life for himself here, leaning on friends like Aron Price, himself an Aussie touring professional before turning to real estate. But he brought a lot of people, those who came before him, along for the ride en route to his fifth PGA TOUR win. Although Hilliar picked up golf recreationally, and Sharon expected her dad was almost certainly watching Smith from Brisbane on Monday, glued to the TV set, the sport that would make his grandson famous would have meant nothing to him then. “Mel started crying first,” Sharon said. He picked her.” They're working-class people who have had to work their whole life to live basically, and yeah, I guess that's just kind of what I grew up in."

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Smith made the putt to record his 10th birdie of the day en route to a six-under 66. “That was way more aggressive than anticpated,” said Gary Koch. Take a look and a listen to the shot. Instead, Smith’s shot landed four feet to the right of the flag.