Cameron Smith slams organisers for US-style Australian Open set-up

Cameron Smith has slammed organisers for their Australian Open course set-up, ruing how the famed Kingston Heath and Victoria sandbelt layouts have been reduced to American-style target golf.

The normally mild-mannered superstar was unable to hide his frustrations after Wednesday’s pro-am, calling out officials for hiding behind Melbourne’s big wet as the reason behind the super soft greens.

“I’ve played down here in rain before and it’d still be like that (hard and fast) the next day, so I think that’s a bull***t excuse, to be honest,” Smith said.

“I think it’s just been prepared like this for a reason and it’s not how these golf courses are meant to be played.

“It’s soft and it’s actually quite disappointing.”

The Australian Open is being staged in Melbourne for only the second time since 2005, with Sydney having held a mortgage on the flagship event for the past 20 years.

Smith said he’d been looking forward all year to returning to the Victoria capital, only to be left disappointed.

“I’ve been keeping an eye on the weather down here and was really quite excited to get down here with the weather that they had last week - the hot temperatures, I was really quite excited to play a really firm and fast sandbelt,” said the former world No.2.

“I would say the courses are in great condition, don’t get me wrong, but they’re going to play so much different to probably how they’re designed to play and how they’re meant to be played.

“This is probably the softest and slowest I’ve seen a ‘sando’ golf course, which is not ideal, particularly for Aussies that love coming down here and being creative.

“It’s going to play more like an American golf course, kind of target golf.

“You can land it at the pin and just kind of fire away, which is, again, not the reason we love golf down here.

“We love it because it’s firm and fast and it’s hard and you have to really think about shot shapes and be creative.”

Despite his beef, the 2022 British Open champ said he’d love for the Australian Open to remain in Melbourne permanently.

“This is really the home of Australian golf,” Smith said.

“These are our best golf courses for sure and it’d be really cool to have a rota of five or six (different Melbourne courses).

“This is an amazing golf course, but there’s another handful that are also worthy of holding an Australian Open and being really tough tests.”

LIV Golf’s Ripper GC skipper is playing his fourth tournament of the Australian summer after finishing third at the Queensland PGA Championship then runner-up at the NSW Open and also at last week’s Australian PGA after leading into the final round on both occasions.

He hopes to peak this weekend.

“The last three weeks have been really solid. I just haven’t been able to quite get over the line,” Smith said.

“But if I was going to pick one, this would be the one anyway, so hopefully it all comes together.”

Smith will play the first two rounds with newly-crowned Australian PGA champion Elvis Smylie after being run down by the 22-year-old at Royal Queensland on Sunday.

TEE TIMES FOR THE FEATURE GROUPS FOR THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN FIRST ROUND ON THURSDAY (AEDT):

7am: Cameron Smith (AUS), Elvis Smylie (AUS), Victor Perez (FRA) - Victoria GC

7.22am: Marc Leishman (AUS), Lucas Herbert (AUS), Yannik Paul (GER) - Victoria GC

7.44am: Cam Davis (AUS), Todd Clements (ENG), Harry Higgs (USA) - Victoria GC

12.05pm: Min Woo Lee (AUS), Joaquin Niemann (CHI), Jordan Smith (ENG) - Kingston Heath GC.