Smith regrets horror showing
If there’s one thing Cameron Smith doesn’t want to do in 2024 it’s play as bad at the LIV event in Adelaide as he did when he returned home last summer.
The major champion is peaking a month out from the event widely regarded as the biggest event on the LIV circuit last year when packed fairways at The Grange Golf Club cemented the Australian fervour to see the world’s best players.
Those crowds were mirrored at the Australian PGA in Brisbane and Australian Open in Sydney last November when Smith failed to deliver on his headline act status.
The proud Queenslander missed the cut in his home state, failing to defend his PGA title that months later still left him burning just at the thought of his poor showing.
Smith decided he probably wasn’t focused enough, with a home wedding in Brisbane occupying his thoughts.
“It was disappointing. I don’t know how to put it. It was just sh*t mate to be honest,” Smith said of his poor showing last summer.
“I don’t want to get to that spot ever again, I don’t want to do that ever again. I’ve played so well in Australia in the past and that was just really disappointing.
“After we finished in Miami (LIV team championship) golf wasn’t the priority.
“I was worried about what we were going to do in Australia, I had the wedding, a lot of friends and family come over towards the end of the year. I put it down to a bit of a lack of attention.
“But we are back to being the priority now.” golf
“Someone will die.”
That’s the blunt assessment of the Enhanced Games concept from Australian Sports Commission CEO and dual gold medallist Kieren Perkins.
Perkins unloaded on the proposed competition, which is tentatively planned for 2025 and has already attracted Australian swimmer James Magnussen, at the SportNXT conference on Tuesday.
“I think the idea of an enhanced games is laughable and borderline criminal,” Perkins said.
“The reason why drugs in sport were outlawed and banned is because a cyclist fell off their bike and died.
“Not because we were embarrassed that someone was too big or too fast, or we felt like there was some underlying pharmacological advantage that we didn’t like another person getting. Someone died.
“Someone will die if we allow that sort of environment to continue to prosper and flourish.”
Last month, Enhanced Games president Dr Aron D’Souza said the Olympic Games was an “outdated” model.