Sony Open Recap: Smith Turns a Corner

Cameron Smith played his first PGA Tour event when he was just 21 and now, more than five years later, still barely looks old enough to drive. He arrived from Australia with massive talent, obviously, though it wasn't translating into predicted success, winless in more than 100 tournaments.

But over the past month, as if all at once, there has been a transformation. First, it was the mild-mannered Smith who minced no words when he fired a shot heard 'round the golf world, calling Patrick Reed "a cheat" right before the normally genial Presidents Cup. Then last week, his voice was heard once again, expressing anguish over the massive fires engulfing his homeland. "Australia is burning, and I'm lost for words!" read Smith's posted on Instagram, vowing to help raise donations through his golf.

And on Sunday we saw the latest stage of Smith's maturation. He birdied the 18th hole to force a playoff with Brendan Steele, then parred the first extra hole to capture the Sony Open at famed Waialae Country Club. At 26, he had finally won a PGA Tour event on his own, having previously paired with Jonas Blixt to win the 2017 Zurich Classic.

More and more we are seeing golfers win in their early 20s – just last year, Matthew Wolff, Collin Morikawa and Joaquin Niemann. Smith had been on Tour when they were all in high school. Twenty-six is of course far from old, either in golf or life, but it still seems like it took forever for Smith. He had reached the top-25 in the world rankings. And he had won two Australian PGA Championships, in 2018 and '19. They were no doubt big deals back home. But candidly, the fields were meh.

Last year was actually a horrible year for Smith. He had only three top-10s in 23 starts, none of them a top-five. He fell out of the top-50 OWGR. We often see regression among young golfers, ups and downs, but when a guy is in his mid-20s after being around for five years, it's not unfair to at least begin to think that maybe it's not gonna happen for him. In an era when driving the ball straight and far is the way to go, Smith struggles off the tee and excels in his short game. (Hello, Jordan Spieth!).

Not everyone breaks through at the same time, there's no one-size-fits-all for finding your place in professional sports. After winning at Waialae, Smith told reporters that things were different this time around in part because the Presidents Cup was so late in December. "In past years I've had three weeks, four weeks off before I get [to Hawaii]," he said, "and I'm typically pretty lazy when I'm home, eating pies and all that stuff."

Sitting around and eating pies! Sounds nice. Who doesn't want to do that? But it's not the best formula for being a world-class athlete (and now Smith will go to Hawaii even a week earlier next year, for the Tournament of Champions).

Smith went on to tell reporters: "That [victory] has been one that I wanted to score for a long time. I've been here four or five years, and saying that I finally won an event is pretty good.

"It has been an Australian week. Wade [Ormsby] won in Asia, I won here. I just hope that brings some joy to some people who are going through difficult times." (Smith has an uncle who lost everything in the fires.)

And then, perhaps most tellingly, Smith said this: "Instead of wanting to do it, I almost felt I had to do it."

That sure sounds like someone who has turned a corner. Smith is back up to No. 31 in the world. He has always had the talent, with top-fives at the Masters and U.S. Open. His game is a good fit for Augusta. It's only three months away. Look what Smith has accomplished in just one month. Imagine what can happen in three.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Brendan Steele
As usual in sports, for every heartwarming story there is heartbreak. Steele's game had fallen apart; he was in the 400s in the world rankings. He hadn't had so much as a top-10 in almost two years. He had the lead on the back-nine but collapsed with some horrid shots. He bogeyed two late holes and saw Smith birdie 18. Then Steele bogeyed the first playoff hole. With the runner-up, he vaulted to No. 162 in the world and went a long way toward keeping his card for next year. But at age 36, these chances won't come around too many more times, if ever. This was probably an aberration for Steele; we don't expect him to be a good fantasy option going forward.

Webb Simpson
Once Justin Thomas, Patrick Reed and Matt Kuchar missed the cut (see below), it opened a path for Simpson. He came close, but missed the playoff by one shot. Simpson continues to be fantasy gold. He has missed only one cut in a year and a half. He's up to No. 11 in the world.

Lanto Griffin
Griffin ripped off six straight top-25s to begin the fall season, highlighted by winning the Houston Open. But it's not uncommon to see guys do great things in the fall, then fade once the calendar flips and fields get stronger. Well, Griffin tied for 13th at the Tournament of Champions and now has added a tie for seventh at the Sony. The calendar has flipped but Griffin hasn't. He's now up to career-best 93rd in the world.

Henrik Norlander
Norlander and Patrick Reed were college teammates, stars and national champions at Augusta State. We know that Reed has gone on to professional greatness. Norlander? Not so much. With a tie for ninth at the Sony, Norlander now has three career top-10s. Two of them are this season. He's now up to No. 208 in the world, which is a career best.

Cameron Davis
There's another Cameron from Australia, one who also has high expectations. Davis is only 24, and he too has struggled in his brief time on the PGA Tour. The Sony was his 37th Tour event, and he just notched his first top-10, tying for ninth. Davis has been in the top-100 OWGR before, but now, with that big finish, is just 259th. Still someone to keep an eye on.

Justin Thomas, Patrick Reed, Matt Kuchar
What were the odds that these three guys would all miss the cut in the same week? Collectively, they trunk-slammed six times all of last season (two each, though Thomas and Kuchar MCed together in the Memorial). It's certainly a DFS killer when that happens, three of the top six guys (DraftKings prices) going down. Unless of course you sidestepped them. Without knowing the numbers, a significant percentage of gamers had to have at least one of them. There's no explanation other than: Hey, it's sports, it happens. Of course, that doesn't make it any less painful. 

Branden Grace
The former top-10 player won his first tournament since 2017 when he captured the South African Open in Johannesburg, coming from three strokes back of countryman Louis Oosthuizen to win by three. Grace entered No. 129 in the world, and he hadn't even qualified for the Open Championship before this win. The other two berths into Royal St. George's as part of the Open Qualifying Series went to England's Marcus Armitage and South Africa's Jaco Ahlers. Four more spots are up for grabs at this week's Singapore Open. Grace endured a precipitous fall that saw him get only two top-10 finishes in all of 2019. But one of them was his final event of the year, a tie for third at the Alfred Dunhill Championship, also in his home country. So maybe Grace has found what was missing, especially with his putter; he's still only 31. But remember that both events had very weak fields. Grace is back to No. 73 OWGR.

Tony Finau
Finau went halfway around the world in search of his second win and didn't get it. He finished fifth in the Hong Kong Open, won by veteran Australian Wade Ormsby (as Cameron Smith alluded to above), wire-to-wire over runner-up Shane Lowry. It was a terribly weak field, worse than the South African Open. It's one of golf's most perplexing questions – why can't Finau win? He's had five runners-up and climbed into the top-10 OWGR since his lone win at the opposite-field Puerto Rico Open in 2016. Finau will get another chance this week at The American Express, formerly called the Bob Hope, in the California desert.