LIV golf teammates Cameron Smith and Lucas Herbert reunite to play NSW Open on rural course

The last time they were on the course together Cam Smith and Lucas Herbert walked away with a $20 million prize as winner’s of LIV’s season-ending teams event in Dallas, Texas.

But while country NSW seems an unlikely place for their Ripper GC reunion, both know the value of playing the NSW Open, where $800,000 is the total prizepool, as part of the plan for bigger Australian targets over the next two weeks.

Smith wasted little time indulging his other passion, fishing, having refined his game over the past two days playing the Murray Downs layout, on the border between NSW and Victoria, which the 2022 British open winner conceded was “far better than what I thought” it would be.

It’s the second of four events in a row for the LIV star who is looking not only for his first individual win of 2024, but warming up for a tilt at a fourth Australian PGA title and first Australian Open during a marathon stint at home.

Smith failed to catch any fish, on the Murray River, just as he’s failed to secure a win this year, but was adamant everything was trending in the right direction.

“The prep the last three days has been really solid. I spent a lot of time out on the course,” he said ahead of Thursday’s opening round.

“Getting to know these Australian courses, particularly the country ones, is a little bit different, so just seeing how the ball reacts and the bounces and all that stuff takes a little bit of getting used to.

“But I feel like I’ve got it pretty down pat now and I prepared the same for this tournament as I would for a major championship.

“I feel like that’s one of my good traits and, yeah, we’re definitely here to try and win.”

Smith and Herbert will play in the same group on Thursday and Friday, along with NSW amateur champion Declan O’Donovan.

Herbert, a winner on both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour since he last played the NSW Open in 2017, knows how much his world has changed since he finished runner-up back then.

He’s now earning millions on the LIV tour as Smith’s teammate, which is a long way from staying in a “garage” with five other players the last time he played the event.

“There was about five of us all staying in an apartment above a car garage where you take your car in to get service sort of thing,” he laughed fondly.

“All sorts of noises going on through the night. I reckon someone slept on a couch, but it was back when that was fun.

 

“Everyone will tell you those early years on Tour when you were doing that kind of stuff was some of your fondest memories though.”

After finishing second to Jason Scrivener, now a DP World Tour regular, in 2017, Herbert played alongside Jason Day at the Australian Open and Master winners Sergio Garcia at the PGA and said the experience helped him realise what he was capable of, and the work he needed to do to match them.

“I remember that being a bit of a moment in my career where I sort of probably took a next step up,” Herbert said

“Within my team, we probably talk about the fact I probably grew up two years in those three weekends.”