Aussie Cameron Smith hopes to be secret ingredient for International Team at Presidents Cup

There was just something about the kid. He was just 16 years old and he looked 12, but Cameron Smith walked into the Queensland state team in 2010 with an aura. A determination oozed from him.

His eight soon-to-be teammates knew all about him before he arrived. They’d been seeing the young stud win plenty of golf tournaments. They’d been getting beaten by him. This despite seven of the eight having already reached their 20s -- some even pushing mid-20s. The other one was 19.

As they prepared for the Australian Interstate Series – a team match play competition between Australia’s six states that has been played since 1904 – the older players were expecting Smith to be one of those kids who thinks the sun shines out of his, uh, rear end. They figured they’d get a kid who feels bigger than the team because deep down he knows he’s the best player on it.

Instead they got the opposite.

“The most impressive thing was he came into the team environment and was so respectful of everybody -- even though he was better than everybody,” teammate Rika Batibasaga says. “But then he was also an immediate leader. Not as the up-front guy, just the guy in the background doing all the things to rev us up. He defied his age. His actions, his words, he helped us feel damn near unbeatable.

“The team stuff – he just loved it. He was all about it. He was always the one who wanted to get the players together away from the practice and play. He did his work, ground it out, but then made sure we all bonded as a unit afterwards.”

Batibasaga, who now caddies part-time for Jason Day on the PGA TOUR, is adamant Smith could be one of the missing ingredients the International Team has been craving in the Presidents Cup.

While Day is likely to bring some of the best skills to Ernie Els’ team at Royal Melbourne in December, Batibasaga says Smith can bring the mongrel and the motivation. This might sound strange to PGA TOUR fans who have seen Smith compete the last few years.

He comes across as a laid-back and quiet individual, one who almost appears to not care. But there’s the rub -- deep down he’s as gritty as they come. It’s like he is a football player, or elite team sport guy, trapped in an individual sport body. Give him the right environment and the instinct takes over.

There is a feeling that Smith has the potential to be as motivating for the team as, say, Ian Poulter is for Europe in the Ryder Cup. Now that would be a big ask, but if Smith played well in an International Team upset – the home side will arrive at Royal Melbourne with a 1-10-1 record, having lost the last seven Presidents Cups -- it certainly would be one heck of a legacy to start.

At fourth on the current International Team standings, the now 25-year-old Smith is in good shape to make his first Presidents Cup. Even if he slips out of the top eight by decision time, those who have been around him in a team environment are ready to sing his praises to the hilt to get him involved.

The proof is already there … if you look close enough.

Two years ago, he won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with Jonas Blixt – a guy he barely knew but had gelled with after moving to Jacksonville, Florida, where Blixt lived. Smith gave the team the right mix between comfort and competition.

As things got tight down the stretch, and in a playoff, Smith stepped up and helped bring the team home.

“He’s got a great attitude and he’s a great person. He's a better person than he is a golfer – and he’s clearly a great golfer. Just hanging with him and just having fun with him … I think that's just what it came down to,” Blixt said after the win.

Late last year at the ISPS Handa Melbourne World Cup, Smith teamed with Marc Leishman for Australia, a somewhat controversial pick ahead of veteran Adam Scott. As the junior member of the duo, Smith might have been expected to sit in the passenger seat. But on the opening day, having made an early birdie and eagle, he turned to Leishman and told his teammate that he was welcome to turn up at any time. It spurred Leishman to make four birdies in his next eight holes.

On Sunday they started six back of leaders Belgium in alternate shot before Smith decided to send the home crowds delirious. He buried birdie putts on the 12th and 13th holes and then, just as hopes looked gone after Leishman left a bunker shot in the sand, Smith holed out for another birdie.

He had a sense of the occasion. He was playing under his national flag and so he found another gear. Sadly for the Australians, they just ran out of holes. The epic comeback would end as runner-up, but they proved they could be a very handy duo for Els at Royal Melbourne in December.

“All around we made a great fit,” says Leishman, who leads the International Team standings and is a certainty for the side. “He would bring a lot of personality to the International team and hopefully a lot of birdies also. While he’d be a rookie, I’d expect he would be in some big pairings as he has the game to beat anyone.

“And importantly he won’t be afraid or intimidated. And we need that as everyone in the U.S. team is an elite world-class player.”

Els was in Melbourne on the final day and saw it firsthand. He won’t hand Smith any guarantees but knows someone with local ties and some serious passion would go a long way.

“He’s got to make the team but he’s got good game,” Els says. “A straight hitter, a good putter, great team guy. So he’d be a real great asset to the team.”

Another example of his edge in team play is, of course, the aforementioned Interstate Series when he was a teenaged assassin.

“Honestly, there might not be a better team guy out there,” Batibasaga recalls. “When it came to game day, he was a little savage. He was the young buck, but he was the guy getting stuck into others, giving the motivational talks, he was the guy revving us up.”

History shows Queensland – Smith’s home state who has also produced the likes of Greg Norman, Scott and Day – would begin a dynasty under the kid.

While they had broken a 35-year drought in 2001 with two-time PGA TOUR winner Steven Bowditch on the team and won again in 2004 with Day part of the crew, the state side had been through five lean years -- including one where they were dead last, failing to beat any of the other five states.

They won in 2010 with Smith going 9-1 overall and 5-0 in Foursomes with Batibasaga.

“In one match there was a three-hole stretch I’ll never forget,” Batibasaga says.

“We came to 15 I believe with a 1-up lead. I hit driver, he hit wedge to a foot. Pick it up, we go 2 up. He teed off 16 and hit it OB so I had to retee for us and I hit into fairway. He then proceeds to lip out his wedge shot for par and we halved with bogey. Next hole I put it in fairway and he actually lips out another wedge, we make birdie and we win 3 and 1. It was just amazing.

“Even after his mistake, he just let it go and backed himself to come back. It was inspiring stuff. I knew he was destined for big things.”

Smith would be part of Queensland teams that would defend the title in 2011 and win again in 2013. His record an imposing 18-3-2 over the three title winning years. He would also win the 2013 Australian Amateur title -- which runs similar to the U.S. Amateur with stroke play qualifying into match play -- before finding his path the PGA TOUR.

“He has a killer instinct. He didn’t want to just win, he wanted to destroy teams. He expected that from himself and from the rest of us,” Batibasaga says.

“And I expect he could bring the same to a Presidents Cup. He won’t be scared. He is ready to take down anyone. I know he has his mind on one or two American players particularly. He is craving it. He will be a force. He has the game to back it up. He loves a fight, and he needs to be in this fight to help turn the tide.”

Of course the U.S. team has been the dominant force in the Presidents Cup; the Americans’ lone loss came at Royal Melbourne in 1998. The last time the teams met at Liberty National in 2017, it was almost over before the singles began.

The history doesn’t intimidate Smith, it just fires him up more.

“It’s a huge goal of mine to make the team, no doubt,” Smith says. “And if I do … I want to play the biggest names. I’m not about to take a step back. I think no matter what challenge I was given, I’d be ready to step up in that environment. It’s at the top of my goals.”

Prior to Liberty National in 2017, Smith was not really in the crosshairs for then-captain Nick Price. His win at the Zurich Classic came without world ranking points and as such did not lift him in the team standings and meant he wasn’t getting mentioned as often as others. There were also only two picks back then.

When the FedExCup Playoffs came that year, Smith knew he needed to make a serious statement. He tried to press to impress and faltered. He wanted it too much. It was a mistake he vowed never to make again. Sure enough, soon after he would finish inside the top five of his next four worldwide starts, including winning the Australian PGA Championship in his home state.

As 2018 came to a close Smith was in a battle with Scott to partner Leishman in the World Cup. He decided he’d use the moment to prove he’d learned from the year before. He had. Smith opened the 2018 FedExCup Playoffs with two third-place finishes making him the chosen one.

After the World Cup he defended his Australian PGA title. So far this 2018-19 PGA TOUR season, Smith has three top-10s but has trailed off a little of late dropping him from near the top of the International standings to fourth. As such the Zurich Classic has come at the perfect time.

With Els deliberately getting prospective team members to pair up in New Orleans as he looks deep into analytics to perhaps find a new way past the Americans Smith has taken a small risk. He has declined to join up with a fellow International prospect, staying loyal to Blixt. Loyalty is, of course, another good team trait.

He expects to make the team on merit in the top eight but at the same time wants Els – and others – to know he’s passionate for the cause.

“Anything where I have played in a team format, I’ve tended to play really well. I guess I enjoy playing for someone and or something bigger than just myself. The Presidents Cup -- it means a lot to me,” Smith said. “And I know it means a lot to the guys like Adam Scott who have been around it a long time but haven’t won it.

“Sure we’ve struggled in the past but I just see that history as an opportunity to create something incredible. Imagine potentially being part of a team that were the ones to finally beat the Americans … well that would be hard to top.”

If Smith was the spearhead for such a result, he’d never have to buy a beer in Australia again.