GOLF: Cameron Smith has fallen agonisingly short of an historic first Olympic golf medal for Australia despite a herculean performance at Kasumigaseki Country Club today.
The Queenslander shot a superb final-round 66, matching his score from Saturday, with eight birdies.
But a bogey at the last hole from the fairway bunker saw him slide out of position for a likely bronze medal playoff. Through the back of the green with his approach, he chipped up to two metres but missed the short putt to save par, posting 14 under par overall.
It turned out to be a putt that cost him a place in the playoff for bronze and saw him slide down to a tie for 10th place on his Olympic debut.
Smith finished four shots shy of the gold medal winner, American Xander Schauffele, after rounds of 71-67-66-66.
Starting out five shots back from 54-hole leader Schauffele, Smith said his goal was to reach 16 under par, meaning that he needed to shoot a 64.
He turned at three under par then nailed a long bomb at the par-three 10th hole and hit it close for another birdie at the 11th to get into medal contention.
A bogey from the fairway at the par-four 12th hurt badly, with his approach sailing right of the green and his flop shot from the rough hitting the flag, then his putt to save par missing. Further birdies at the 16th and 17th from close range put him into a tie for third and the bronze medal position, but the bogey at the 18th turned out to be critical.
“I think that bogey on 12 … I made such a good drive down there in the middle of the fairway, so to make a pretty soft bogey like that was a bit crappy,” he said. “Then I missed a short putt (for birdie) on the next hole, and I knew it was going to be hard from there to kind of get back in the swing of things. I did my best but it just wasn’t good enough.”
So close! Cam Smith bogeys the last after finding a fairway trap, shoots 66 but will just miss a medal. #Tokyo2020 #TokyoTogether #golf pic.twitter.com/ftgRo3fGgX
— AUS Olympic Team (@AUSOlympicTeam) August 1, 2021
Smith said his putter had let him down on the day. “That’s just how it is some days. Some days they all go in and the other days they don’t. The more I play golf the more I’m realising it.”
Marc Leishman was out of contention already but finished nicely with consecutive birdies to shoot a 69 and finish at two under par, in tied-51st.
Schauffele (67 today) hit a pure wedge and holed his par-saving putt from just more than a metre at the final hole to win the gold at 18 under par from Slovakia’s Rory Sabbatini, who had earlier posted 17 under par with a stunning 61 today.
The Australian women’s team of Minjee Lee and Hannah Green arrived in Tokyo today and begin their preparation tomorrow for their competitions starting on Wednesday at Kasumigaseki.
Martin Blake
