Cameron Smith has had to hold back the tears as he handed back the Claret Jug as Open champion at Hoylake – before revealing just how desperate he is to grab the famous old trophy back on Sunday.
The Queenslander admitted to feeling a sudden rush of emotion at the Royal Liverpool club on Monday as he undertook the tradition of returning his replica trophy to the R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers.
“That would be nice,” said the 29-year-old, asked about the prospect of being the first man to win back-to-back Opens since Padraig Harrington in 2007 and 2008.
“That’s what I’ve been saying to all my mates. ‘It’ll only be a week and we’ll be drinking out of it again’. You never know, sometimes you can play your best golf at major championships.
“Winning it still doesn’t feel real, even a year down the road. But yeah, I think hopefully I can get it back. I want that thing back so bad!
“I thought I was going to do all right when I had it hand it back, but I was actually holding back from tears. A bit of a moment, I guess, that crept up on me.
“It wasn’t hard to hand it back. I wasn’t like, ‘I’m not letting it go’. But it was just a bit of a moment that I guess you don’t think about and then all of a sudden it’s there and you want it back.”
But Smith will be one of the favourites after finding signs of his best form in the build-up to the defence of the trophy he won in the 150th Open at St Andrew’s last year, with his first tournament win of the year on the LIV circuit at Centurion last week.
It was time in his champion’s news conference at Hoylake for the modest Brisbane superstar to reflect on a dramatic year in which he won golf’s grandest old prize before becoming the highest-profile recruit for the controversial Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour.
But as he approached Thursday’s defence at the famous old links in north-west England, he was adamant he was no different to the man he was before he rocketed into sporting annals with one of the great final rounds in any major at St Andrew’s.
“I think the person is the same. I think my old boy would give me a clip around the ears if he thought I was any different,” said Smith.
“But I think as a golfer, I think I’m actually a better golfer now than I was last year.”
Famously, Smith felt the gloss had been taken off his moment of glory at St Andrew’s when he was asked in his victory press conference whether he was going to join LIV, an open secret within the sport that was soon to be confirmed a month later.
But he was adamant that he had no regrets about making the change to join the lucrative tour even while in the middle of the greatest year of his career on the PGA Tour.
“It was frustrating at the time – but it does seem like a long time ago,” said the world No.7 Smith.
“I don’t think there was any part of me that made me think I made the wrong decision throughout any part of the last eight, nine months,” he added.