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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Sport
Matt Cleary

Cameron Smith is Australia’s newest major champion and golf’s everyman

Cameron Smith with the Claret Jug after his victory on day four of the 150th Open Golf Championship.
Australia’s Cameron Smith poses with the Claret Jug, which he guesses will hold about two cans of beer. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

For the mug amateur, professional golf is borderline witchcraft. For we – the hacker, the chopper, the handicapped – it is impossible to relate to the cognition that golf’s elite have for their game. It is a dark art to simply play in, much less contend for, the Open Championship, the oldest and greatest major hosted by a royal and ancient society at the ‘home of golf’. To win on the Old Course at St Andrews? Well, this is not normal behaviour at all.

It is among the reasons golf fans love Australia’s latest major champion, Cameron Smith. He reminds us of ourselves; he is an everyman who happens to be unbelievably good at golf.

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