Date: September 28, 2012
Author: Sarah Kennedy / Golf Australia
Things are looking promising for National Squad Member, Cameron Smith, as he prepares to represent Australia at the World Amateur Team Championships in Turkey. After a disappointing result at the US Amateur Championships in August, where Smith encountered horrible weather during round one before fighting back in round two only to miss the cut in a 17 man play off, his form looks good after a solid performance in Japan last week. Making his first appearance at the Asia Pacific Panasonic Open, Smith had rounds of 67-71-66-71 to finish 9-under par and 17th overall. It was a great result for the Queenslander, who outscored the likes of Ryo Ishikawa, Shingo Katayama and Jeev Milka Singh. Before jetting off to Turkey, Smith spoke to MYGolf about the upcoming World Amateur Team Championships and also shares his opinion on the decision to include golf in the 2016 Olympics. “I am looking forward to the World Amateur next week with my team mates Matt Stieger and Daniel Nisbet. It&aposs a great honour to represent my country, and I have been fortunate to do it a couple of times but this is definitely the pinnacle. Hopefully we will return with the trophy and good memories, and I think we have the team to do it. There is nothing I have experienced better than representing your own country, but to get selected there is always a lot of hard work and dedication that goes towards getting there and there is never any substitute for hard work. If you do the work it has to pay off one day.” “We also have recently found out that golf will be included in the next Olympics. I think it will be an experience of a lifetime for the people that represent their countries. There will be nothing like that event. I have never seen a country vs. country tournament in the format that is getting requested. It will carry great significance and will make the game that we love grow in every part of the world and over time make competition stronger. It should be exciting to watch and hopefully Australia can bring back the gold.” Cameron Smith is a member of Golf Australia&aposs National Squad and was the 2012 Australian Amateur Medallist. To read more about Cameron, click here.