UK Preview: Smith happy to have Troon in rearview mirror as Rippers focus on England event

ROCESTER, England – Ripper GC captain Cameron Smith will be hoping that last week's missed cut at the Open Championship was just a temporary blip as he and his team now focus on this week's LIV Golf UK.

Smith has been one of the best players in LIV Golf this year and he has good memories of last year's LIV Golf London at Centurion where he emerged as the individual champion.

Although this week's venue is a different one - at JCB Golf & Country Club north of Birmingham - he will have great expectations for this England visit after finishing joint fourth in his most recent LIV Golf start to occupy seventh spot in the season-long individual standings.

But Smith will also approach this week's event a little bruised by memories of last week at wind-buffeted Ryal Troon where he missed the cut by a wide margin after carding scores of 9-over 80 and 74.

"Just a bad day, really," Smith said of his opening 80 which included a triple-bogey at the par-4 second and a total of nine bogeys. "If you had have told me (before the round) that I was going to shoot that, I wouldn't have said that was possible. But yeah, just a bit of a crappy start and I didn't really manage to hole any putts when I needed to to get back in it. It was just a bad day and some bad breaks, as well."

Smith, who had tied for fourth the previous week at LIV Golf Andalucía where he led the field in scrambling, said that gusting crosswinds had been the most difficult factor at Royal Troon.

"It was hard to keep your ball in the fairway, and when you're in the rough, you're kind of guessing with landing something short with the bounces you get," said the 30-year-old from Brisbane who won the 2022 Open Championship at St Andrews.

"It was brutal. It really was a good test of golf, and you needed to be on your A+ game to shoot under par. I really was quietly confident going into last week at Troon after Andalucía but yeah - just a bad day."

Overall, though, Smith and company have every reason to feel quietly confident ahead of Friday's opening round at par-71 JCB Golf and Country Club after a 2024 campaign highlighted by team victories in Adelaide and Singapore.

With just three more regular events to go, they occupy fourth spot in the season-long standings and will be looking to finish their campaign with a flourish at the September 20-22 LIV Golf Team Championship in Texas.

"I knew all year that we were going to get the ball rolling at some point," Smith said of the slow start that Rippers made to the season before they collectively caught fire. "I think internally that we're the best team out here, and we're going to be tough to beat when we all have our best stuff. We are going to be tough to beat for the rest of the season."