“I mean growing up on the north side of Brisbane there, we didn’t really hit too many balls off grass,” he said this week. “So to be down there being creative around the greens using different shots, I think it was the first time where I could genuinely hit a different shot and know exactly what it was going to do.”

He won the adidas Australian Amateur in 2013 at Commonwealth and the love affair has never ended. Smith this week confirmed that he would be back in Melbourne for the ISPS HANDA Australian Open at Kingston Heath and The Victoria Golf Club at the end of next month.

It’s the creativity of Sandbelt golf that he craves, and he wants the courses to play hard and fast for the Open this year. It’s why he equates it with the likes of Augusta National, host club for the Masters each year.

“It’s very similar in that sense of you have to hit high shots and low shots and shots along the ground and yeah, I feel like when I get my mind going and really connected to a shot, that’s when I play my best golf and that for me is just being really creative and down there in Melbourne’s probably the number one spot.”

Smith has never won his home Open and has not made a secret of his desire to get his name etched on the Stonehaven Cup. This will be his 12th attempt, with a few near misses including a playoff loss to Jordan Spieth at Royal Sydney in 2016.

“It’s been, I don’t know if it’s been a difficult tournament for me, but there’s been a couple of hard pills to swallow in the past for sure. I think as you mentioned, I’ve been close a couple of times lost in a playoff. Yeah, so there’s definitely some motivation there to win it and get that trophy.

“It’s one that I’ve always wanted to win and one that’s always been in my radar and I feel like I’ve ‘prepped’ for a lot and I just haven’t been able to do it yet. So as much as that is in the back of my mind, I’ve always been a process type of person and I’ve always been about doing the things right, leading up to the event and hopefully this year I can just kind of manage that stuff a little bit better and get down there looking good.”

Smith is playing four consecutive events on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia at home before Christmas – the New South Wales Open at Murray Downs where he last played as a teenager in a Jack Newton event, the Queensland PGA, the BMW Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland and the Open.

But there is method to his heavy schedule. He took a longer-than-usual break after playing the LIV Golf tour in 2023 and lost momentum; this time, he has rested up during the gaps in the LIV season and now he wants to play.

He’s completed his celebrations for Ripper GC’s win in the LIV teams competition and had Mad Monday, where he turned up as Joe Exotic, the Tiger King, only to be outshone by his caddie Sam Pinfold’s Ray-Gun outfit. Now he wants to lock into golf again.

“I feel like I’ve put the clubs down enough and I’ve had enough time to kind of get the golf bug kind of back and willing to work, and I just didn’t want to have another period of time where I had four or five weeks off without competing, and I just didn’t think after the last couple of years the way that’s gone, I just didn’t think that was a very bright idea, not only from myself but probably from a team as far as my team goes perspective as well.

“So there was no reason to not play and why not play at home? There’s plenty of tournaments to play around the world but to come home and playing in front of a home crowd is always nice and then to give back to golf in Australia is always something I’ve been very passionate about so it just kind of all made sense.”

Smith is one of a bevy of world class players coming to Melbourne for the Open, including Min Woo Lee, Hannah Green, Cam Davis and the defending champions Joaquin Niemann and Ashleigh Buhai.
The tournament takes place from 28 November to 1 December with the first two days at both courses and rounds three and four at Kingston Heath.

The 2024 ISPS HANDA Australian Open will be broadcast on Fox Sports and Kayo, as well as the NINE Network.

Tickets for the ISPS HANDA Australian Open are available now via Ticketek.

PHOTO: In Sydney in 2023, Cameron Smith was tied-17th. Now he’s beefed up his schedule for this summer. Image: Jason McCawley