SMITH Cameron

General
BUSHFIRE TRIBUTE
After winning the 2020 Sony Open in Hawaii, he dedicated the victory and donated some of his prize money to people in Australia impacted by the bushfires that had affected parts of the country in late 2019 and early 2020. His uncle Warren was one of the people affected by the bushfires. "Australia is doing it tough right now and the focus is probably not on my golf, for good reason. But hopefully it gave a few people reason to smile for a moment or two. Uncle Warren drove back to his place the other day and what he found was quite devastating. I saw the photos and the only thing he had left was a little shed that him and his son built a few months back. We're a tight-knit family and it hit everyone pretty hard. It's good to do something good and hopefully put a smile on their face." (bbc.co.uk, 13 Jan 2020)

GOLFING MINDSET
He says his upbringing in Australia helped him to develop a tougher side to his game. "Aussies are really good at knocking you down a peg. When I was a kid, I'd go away and win some junior tournament and I'd come back and it's like, 'OK, yeah that's nice'. I feel like over here in the [United] States, they celebrate stuff like that a lot more. Back home it's like, 'Well you have more to achieve, so why should we celebrate this'. Also, growing up in Queensland, the rugby league team there is always the underdog but they so often find a way to gut it out and win, so growing up watching that and being a big fan of rugby league I guess that's always sort of inspired me to be a bit the same. Plus, I'm not the biggest guy out here or the longest so I feel like I've got to scrap a bit, which is fine by me." (golfmonthly.com, 24 Mar 2021)