In the end, he almost went home.
The reason he’s so loved down here is because he’s so relatable. He went for a greasy feed the morning after the night before at the Breakfast Creek.
A birdie on his last hole was enough to avoid a weekend exit, only confirmed with the last stragglers finishing after 6.30pm. After one uncharacteristic approach on his third last hole, Smith pulled his cap over his face and wondered why it had all gone wrong.
“I tend to really struggle on back-to-back weeks, I think because I put so much into that first week,” Smith said.
“I obviously really wanted to play well last week and so it’s something I definitely need to work on. Getting more mentally prepared for the week after is definitely something that can improve. The brain’s been going pretty hard the last few months, so yeah, it would be a good time to sit down on a beach somewhere and have a few margaritas.”
Adam Scott surged into a share of the Australian Open lead.Credit:Getty
Fellow LIV defector Marc Leishman (+3) stumbled with a 75 and was caught on the wrong side of a cut Greg Norman’s cohort don’t usually have to worry about. It left Scott (-8) as the big name on a leaderboard hardly bristling with them after the former Masters champion posted a seven-under 63 at Victoria, capped with a closing eagle.
Asked if this year’s Australian Open was a tad more significant given its absence during the pandemic, Scott joked: “If I win, for sure. I like the story. It’s good. I have really enjoyed my six rounds of golf here in Australia. It’s always nice when you can take a lot of players out of it. If I can play well [on Saturday] and anyone else can come along [me] and there’s only a few guys in it, that would be a great position for Sunday.”
The women’s tournament is looming as a weekend for the ages.
The metronomic Lee (-5) was tidy with a three-under 70 at Kingston Heath, but she’s got some chasing to do, sitting six shots behind Hannah Green (-11), who almost holed out for an albatross on the downwind last.
Hannah Green has taken the lead at the halfway mark of the Australian Open.Credit:AP
“I feel like I’m a lot more tired than I usually am,” she said. “Just because I’ve had a lot of other commitments that I probably wouldn’t have if I was just playing an LPGA tournament.
“As long as it’s promoting golf in Australia, I’m happy to do it. I definitely haven’t played in front of crowds like this in Australia before. Having Adam Scott in the group behind obviously helps. There’s a lot of people. You get some huge roars. It’s just exciting to see people so thrilled to be at a golf tournament.”
The men’s standings are led by Scott and a bloke who piled so many mates into the back of his car earlier this week, it lowered up the driveway at Victoria Golf Club to the point where the exhaust pipe was collateral damage. First round leader David Micheluzzi (-8) also led after the second, but he has company after a final hole bogey at Victoria for a second round one-under 71 at Kingston Heath.
And then there’ll be Smith, 10 shots behind trying to avoid the double cut when both men’s and women’s fields are cut to 30 after Saturday’s play.
If he can win from there? They might as well give him the keys to the Breakfast Creek Hotel too.
Watch the Australian Open on the 9Network and 9Now from December 1-4.