AUGUSTA, Go. (AP) – Cameron Smith closed his eyes once, closed them twice, then let his bat slip from his right hand.
He knew right away.
Before Smith’s tee shot on the 12th hole on the final round of the Masters splashed into Rae’s Creek—taking away the 28-year-old Australian’s hopes of winning his first major—he looked away in horror.
It didn’t get any better from there. His pitch shot from the penalty area sailed over the green. Another dubious pitch and two putts later, he tapped in for a triple bogey that dropped him six shots back to eventual champion Scottie Scheffler. Smith, the world’s sixth-ranked player, posted a 1-over 73 to finish in third place with Shane Lowry.
Brisbane-born Smith said he had hoped people at home would wake up around 5am to see him aiming to track down Scheffler. The early returns provided a caffeine-free shock. He birdied each of the first two holes to narrow a three-shot deficit to just one.
It would be this close if Smith came. Scheffler birdied the par-4 in third, while Smith bogeyed from almost the exact same spot. A bogey at the par-3 fourth set Smith back four. He quietly birdied 15 feet on the difficult par-4 11th to get three shots behind.
The momentum lasted five minutes.
The treacherous 12th is where countless hopes for wins at Augusta National have disappeared. Smith’s leaky tee shot that never quite made it over Rae’s Creek added him to a list that included Jordan Spieth in 2016, Greg Norman in 1996 and Francesco Molinari in 2019.
The player, known for his mullet haircut, was clearly upset and seemed to let his anger control. He slammed his club into the turf after throwing far past the hole on the 13th green, leading to a par when he desperately needed a birdie.
His tee shot on the 14th went into the trees on the left, triggering a bogey. In the span of 20 minutes, what seemed potentially doable quickly turned first to questionable and then impossible.
As Rory McIlroy and Collin Morikawa led the way, splattering in birdies from the greenside bunker on the 18th to beat Smith on the leaderboard, he bent his driver over his shoulders in frustration, the second hottest golfer in the world behind Scheffler stumbling beneath the back nine pressure at Augusta National.
The erratic round capped off four days of wild swings for Smith. He arrived at the Masters well-rested, three weeks away from a gritty one-stroke win at The Players Championship, then started with a 4-under-68 to follow Sungjae Im down just one.
An opening 39 on Friday led to a 2-over 74, leaving him six shots behind Scheffler’s pace. He responded with a 68 in the unusual spring chill, the best lap of a miserable day to get him within three of Scheffler.
A game between the two players who had won five tournaments together this year was on the horizon after Smith’s early birdies on Sunday.
It soon fell apart after that hot start.
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