Cameron Smith is poised to miss the cut at the Australian Open and deliver tournament organisers a hammer blow in Melbourne.
Smith, the world No.3 who won a third Australian PGA title last week, struggled for the second day running in the historic concurrent open.
He shot a one-over 73 at Kingston Heath in the first group on Friday morning, less than 24 hours after a “rubbish” one over in his opening round at Victoria on Thursday.
Smith (+2) took two unplayables in his outward nine at the Heath, and despite rallying the large galleries with back-to-back birdies to start his inward nine, struggled to gain any momentum after that.
He gave himself the faintest of chances of making the weekend with a birdie on the ninth, his last hole of the day, but the projected cut before early in the afternoon wave was sitting at one over.
“I just felt really uncomfortable all day,” Smith said. “It was similar to [Thursday]. I couldn’t quite hit the ball out of the middle of the club face for some reason or another. I think the mind was a little bit foggy, I was a little tired as well after such a big week.
Cameron Smith struggled during the second round of the Australian Open.Credit:Getty
“I had a lot of adrenalin going last week, especially out on the golf course. It’s just kind of all hit me at once. I need to play better than that, even if I am tired. That was pretty rubbish out there today. It’s probably the easiest this place is going to get.”
Playing partners Adrien Meronk (-3) and two-time winner Matt Jones (-3) surged into contention with the former carding a six-under 66, but Marc Leishman (+3) is set to be another weekend omission.
Meanwhile, 26-year-old West Australian Haydn Barron is producing the tournament of his life, entering the clubhouse tied for second after a two-under 68 at Victoria on Friday.
Barron, effectively in his first year as a professional, was tied at five under with Josh Geary after two rounds, with leader David Micheluzzi (-7) to complete his second round later on Friday.
Barron planned to turn professional at the end of 2019, but COVID-19 put those plans on hold, and he had to fill in his time greens keeping in Perth.
At one stage he looked unlikely to get a berth at the Australian Open, as he sat three outside the field capacity in the order of entry, but the lack of European players meant he gained a start.
Now he sits in an incredibly strong position heading into the weekend.
“It feels awesome,” Barron said. “Obviously, a little bit of a different feeling after last week [at the Australian PGA Championships], I missed the cut by a couple. But I love these events, I love the crowd and the hype.”
But Barron, ranked 1214th in the world, said he wouldn’t set any lofty goals despite sitting prominently on the leaderboard.
“Probably more so [I just want to] mentally keep as calm as I can and as present as I can,” he said. “Obviously we’ve got a couple of days left and I’m really looking forward to getting stuck in, but I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself.”
More to come
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