Tag: Cam Smith

Fore! Aaron Wise gets drilled in the head by errant tee shot at PGA Championship

Aaron Wise took one in the noggin at Southern Hills on Friday.

TULSA, Okla.  – Aaron Wise took one in the noggin on the seventh hole at Southern Hills during the second round of the 104th PGA Championship on Friday.

Wise, who shot 69 in the opening round, was minding his own business and playing the par-4 hole when Aussie Cameron Smith, playing the adjacent second hole, drilled him on the fly in the head with a tee shot that flew 316 yards to the right into the wrong fairway.

“He looks OK, he’s standing up,” an ESPN reporter walking with Smith’s group said of Wise, who played collegiately at the University of Oregon. “He’s looking at his yardage book.” He was also seen holding a cold water bottle against his head.

Wise, 25 and the winner of the 2018 AT&T Byron Nelson, managed to make par at Nos. 7 and 8, but bogeyed the ninth hole to shoot 2-over 72 on Friday. Smith, meanwhile, scrambled for par at No. 2.

After the round, Wise sought medical attention and was seen holding an ice pack to his head.

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Doug Farrar’s 2023 “Are you kidding me?” way-too-early NFL mock draft

Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar has put together a 2023 NFL mock draft — just after the 2022 draft. Don’t worry, there’s a point to this exercise!

There are those who will tell you that doing mock drafts for 2023 right after the 2022 draft comes down is the ultimate example of wool-gathering/navel-gazing/clickbaiting, and just generally a useless exercise. After all, there’s so much we don’t yet know about how the boards will stack based on the 2022 NCAA season. Had the quarterbacks in the 2022 draft been available on their 2020 tape alone, Sam Howell (fifth round to the Washington Commanders) probably would have gone first, and Kenny Pickett (20th overall to the Steelers) — who had never thrown more than 13 touchdown passes in a season before 2021 — might not have been drafted at all. We also don’t know who will be this year’s Pickett, Zach Wilson, or Joe Burrow — the guy who comes out of nowhere to become a legitimate first-round talent.

You just never know how things are going to pop.

That said, working ahead to the next draft is an interesting and instructive if you take it from the point of view of what NFL teams did in 2022, and where things might need to be bolstered next year. The Giants and Eagles, for example, have created excuse-proof situations for Daniel Jones and Jalen Hurts, and we aren’t sure how that’s going to go.

(Spoiler: In this 2023 mock, both teams select quarterbacks in the first round. So, there you go).

There are other teams who are in the middle of full-on rebuilds, and looking ahead to 2023 brings about ideas of how those teams can fill in the remaining blanks.

So, with all that out of the way, here’s my 2023 mock draft. Positions are based on Pro Football Focus’ projections for the 2022 NFL season, and I used their awesome Mock Draft Simulator to keep everything straight.

‘There’s no faking it’: Masters players react to Saturday’s brutal conditions at Augusta National

“You could play really well and shoot below 100 if you make a couple of putts, I reckon,” said Cam Davis.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – What would a 10-handicap shoot at Augusta National in Saturday’s gusty, frigid conditions? Australia’s Cameron Davis was asked to hazard a guess at the Masters.

“You could play really well and shoot below 100 if you make a couple of putts, I reckon,” said Davis.

But it depends in part, he said, on whether or not that player is a low-ball hitter or a high-ball hitter.

“There’s a 20-shot difference between the two,” he explained. “This course is hard. It seems like you want to hit the ball high into every green and you had to hit the ball low. When the greens are firm and it’s windy, it’s kind of hard to do the low option, so you have to throw the ball up in the air and see what happens a lot of the time. It’s just hard.”

Temperatures started in the low 40s and remained in the low 50s throughout the afternoon, with sustained winds of 15 mph and gusts up to 25 mph.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler shot 1-under 71 and holds fast to a three-stroke lead on a day when only nine players managed to break par. Nos. 1 and 18  allowed only two birdies each in the third round. One Rory McIlroy birdied the fourth hole.

Here’s what players had to say about the difficult day:

Cam Smith got emotional talking about his mom and sister after winning the Players

Cam Smith hadn’t seen him mom and sister for over two years because of COVID-19 protocols.

Cam Smith got the biggest win of his career yesterday at the Players Championship and earned a cool $3.6 million in the process.

But moments after his victory he said golf hadn’t been his main priority the past few weeks.

So what could possibly have been the main priority for the 28-year-old PGA Tour star who has four wins in his last 50 starts?

Hanging out with his mom and sister, who he hasn’t seen in over two years because they live in Australia and COVID-19 protocols have made it difficult for them to get together.

Smith got emotional yesterday when he was asked about what it meant to see them and have them at his huge win at TPC Sawgrass:

Man, it is getting dusty in here. Hard not to root for Smith, who’s easily one of the nicest guys on the Tour.

Here they all were celebrating right after Smith had clinched the win:

Too good.

Twitter had reactions:

How much money each PGA Tour player earned at the 2022 Sentry Tournament of Champions

It pays to play well on the PGA Tour, especially among a field full of champions.

It pays to play well on the PGA Tour, especially among a field full of champions. Just ask this week’s winner, Cameron Smith.

The 28-year-old Aussie earned his second win in Hawaii on Sunday in record-setting fashion, setting a PGA Tour scoring mark at 34 under to win the 2022 Sentry Tournament of Champions, the first event of the new year. Smith made Kapalua’s Plantation Course look like a pitch-and-putt all week, capping off a wire-to-wire win with an 8-under 65 on Sunday to claim the top prize of $1,476,000.

Check out how much money each PGA Tour player earned this week at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. Click here to see the top 18 money winners of all time.

Sentry TOC: Leaderboard

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Prize money

Position Player Score Earnings
1 Cameron Smith -34 $1,476,000
2 Jon Rahm -33 $810,000
3 Matt Jones -32 $515,000
4 Patrick Cantlay -26 $400,000
T5 Daniel Berger -25 $286,000
T5 Collin Morikawa -25 $286,000
T5 Justin Thomas -25 $286,000
T8 Sungjae Im -24 $217,500
T8 Kevin Kisner -24 $217,500
T10 Cameron Davis -23 $188,000
T10 Marc Leishman -23 $188,000
12 Xander Schauffele -22 $170,000
T13 Hideki Matsuyama -21 $155,000
T13 Kevin Na -21 $155,000
T15 Talor Gooch -20 $132,500
T15 Max Homa -20 $132,500
T15 Seamus Power -20 $132,500
T15 Patrick Reed -20 $132,500
T19 Sam Burns -19 $123,000
T19 Tony Finau -19 $123,000
T21 Stewart Cink -18 $119,000
T21 Jordan Spieth -18 $119,000
T23 Billy Horschel -17 $115,500
T23 Si Woo Kim -17 $115,500
T25 Bryson DeChambeau -16 $113,000
T25 Garrick Higgo -16 $113,000
T25 Erik van Rooyen -16 $113,000
T28 Joel Dahmen -15 $110,500
T28 Brooks Koepka -15 $110,500
T30 Harris English -14 $108,000
T30 Viktor Hovland -14 $108,000
T30 Phil Mickelson -14 $108,000
T33 Branden Grace -13 $105,500
T33 K.H. Lee -13 $105,500
T35 Abraham Ancer -10 $103,500
T35 Lucas Glover -10 $103,500
37 Lucas Herbert -8 $102,000
38 Jason Kokrak -7 $101,000

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Cam Smith sets PGA Tour scoring record with win at Sentry Tournament of Champions

The field full of winners didn’t disappoint in the first Tour event of 2022.

The PGA Tour’s return to competition this week featured a 38-player field full of winners and the boys didn’t disappoint.

It came down to the 72nd hole at the Plantation Course at Kapalua, where world No. 1 Jon Rahm and Australians Cam Smith and Matt Jones all broke the 30-under mark while vying for the title.

Smith stood on the par-5 18th tee at 33 under with a one-shot lead over playing partner Rahm and a two-shot advantage over Jones, who was in the group ahead. Jones made birdie to tie Rahm at 32 under, who like Smith found the fairway off the tee. Both players just missed the green with their approaches, but each still had a putt for eagle. Smith did well to lag his putt inside five feet and put the pressure on Rahm, who just missed his eagle attempt by a foot. The Spaniard tapped in for birdie to reach 33 under, leaving Smith a three-and-a-half footer for the win at 34 under, a new scoring record on Tour.

The win is Smith’s fourth on the PGA Tour, and continues an interesting trend of alternating victories between New Orleans and Hawaii. His first win was the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in 2017 with Jonas Blixt. His second came at the 2020 Sony Open in Hawaii. He then again won the Zurich last year with fellow Aussie Marc Leishman before his win this week at Kapalua.

Sentry TOC: Leaderboard | Photos

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Winners’ Bags: Marc Leishman, Cameron Smith at Zurich Classic of New Orleans

A complete list of the WITB gear Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith used to win the PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

The clubs Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith used to win the PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans:

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Marc Leishman

DRIVER: Callaway Epic Speed (10.5 degrees), with Fujikura Ventis Black 7X shaft

FAIRWAY WOOD: Callaway Epic Speed (16.5 degrees), with Fujikura Ventus Black 8X shaft

HYBRID: Callaway Apex (20 degrees), with Graphite Design Tour AD Hybrid shaft

IRONS: Callaway Apex UT (3, 4), Apex TCB (5-9), with Nippon N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour 130X shafts

WEDGES: Callaway JAWS MD5 (48, 54, 60 degrees), with Nippon N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour 130X shafts

PUTTER: Odyssey White Hot OG #1 WS

BALL: Callaway Chrome Soft LS

GRIPS: Golf Pride MCC Whiteout (full swing) / Traxion 1.0PT (putter)

Cameron Smith

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DRIVER: Titleist TSi3 (10 degrees), with Project X HZRDUS Smoke Yellow 60 6.5 TX shaft

FAIRWAY WOODS: Titleist TSi2 (15 degrees), TS2 (21 degrees), with UST Mamiya Elements Red 8F5 X shafts

IRONS: Titleist U500 (4), T100 Black (5-9), with KBS Tour 130 Custom Matte Black X shafts

WEDGES: Titleist Vokey Design SM8 (46, 52, 56, 60 degrees), with KBS Tour 130 Custom Matte Black X shafts

PUTTER: Scotty Cameron for Titleist 009M prototype

BALL: Titleist Pro V1x

GRIPS: Golf Pride Super Tack