Shark tips Cam for Open triumph

BRITISH Open outcast Greg Norman is tipping Cameron Smith to end Australia’s long drought at the world’s oldest golf major.

It has been 29 years since an Australian has won the Claret Jug but the Shark thinks that could change this week when the tournament returns to St Andrews.

And the player that Norman reckons could do it is Smith, who won this year’s Players’ Championship in Florida and finished third at the Masters.

“Maybe this is it. A golf course like St Andrews would be great for Cam Smith,” Norman said.

“He’s just got to get rid of that going left-right every now and then.

“He’s done that a couple of times. He got away with it at the TPC so he’s got to eliminate that loose shot that he’s got going there.

“But I think St Andrews would be a good golf course for him because he hits a lot of run out of his driver.

“When he’s driving it well, he’s driving really well so I would put him up there to be a consideration of hoisting it.”

Only four Australians have won the British Open: Peter Thomson (five times), Norman (twice), Kel Nagle and Ian Baker Finch (once each).

Nagle won the 100th edition in 1960 while Norman is the most recent winner after triumphing at Royal St George’s in 1993.

Norman is banned from attending this year’s 150th celebrations as punishment for his involvement in the Saudifunded rebel league but said he’ll be closely following all 11 Aussies playing the tournament this year.

“There’s a lot of great young talent coming out,” he said.

“I love seeing these kids. I don’t know them, I wish I did, but we’re probably three generations apart but I love watching them and seeing their results and what they do.

“They all look technically pretty damn good.

“Wherever they come from, whether it’s colleges or whether it’s high schools, whether it’s academies or whatever, they’re technically good.

“There’s so many opportunities through technology nowadays like YouTube to study the golf swing down to a nanosecond and where you’ve got to be and what you can do and that’s why I think these kids are really advanced but you’ve still got to get out there and play.

“I do like what I see with this young talent though.”

Of the four men’s majors, the British Open is far and away Australia’s most successful, with nine titles, more than the other three combined.

Norman thinks that’s because Australians are better at adapting to Scotland’s seaside links courses because they’ve grown up playing at Melbourne’s famed sand belt layouts.

“A lot of the links courses have massive run offs, look at St Andrews for example. A lot of our bunkers can be very nasty and penal on our sand belt golf courses,” he said.

“I shouldn’t say there’s a lot of similarities, but there are similarities.

“If you can play Royal Melbourne, Kingston Heath, Yarra Yarra, Huntingdale, Metropolitan type of golf courses, you learn how to keep the ball on the ground as much as you can, and you learn how to spin the golf ball.”