Cameron Smith

The Aussie is typically known for his standout short game but actually lost strokes around-the-green this week at LACC. He made up for it with his irons (12th on approach) and putting (3rd). This matches his previous best at the U.S. Open (2015) with six other finishes all outside of the top35 on his tournament resume. "Like I said at the start of the week, the U.S. Open typically hasn't been a happy hunting ground for me. Probably due to lack of driver accuracy, especially the first couple of days. Really hit that driver in the fairway and give myself a lot of opportunities." Smith should bring a lot of confidence to the table when he attempts to defend his title at The Open in a few weeks. 

The Aussie finished T34 at the Masters but improved with a T9 at the PGA Championship. "The last six or seven weeks the game has started to feel like it's really flipped a switch and has started to be in the right direction. These couple of weeks have been nice, though." He expanded on how the driver is usually the weak link for him but said he's starting to feel really good with the driver. Smith is opening in the +2500 to +3000 range in the outright betting market.

The Aussie enters the week with five top 10s in his last six visits to Augusta National. More recently, he's missed the cut in two of his last five worldwide starts with a 6th-place finish and two ho-hum finishes on the LIV circuit. "I think the other thing for me is coming back to this place where I've had so many good memories, hit so many good shots. A lot of times, I've come in not feeling so good with my game and it's kind of springboarded me into kind of a nice rest of the season." 

The home favorite lived up to the pre-tournament expectations which is often easier said than done. A few lightning delays really made him think about this one but he came out firing out of the suspensions to re-establish his name at the top of the leaderboard. "I really didnâ??t think I had it in me at the start of the week, I was a bit scratchy and the game has got better and better as the week went on, other than the front nine today." Smith has now won three of the last four editions of this event with the previous two coming at RACV Royal Pines while this one took place Royal Queensland.