Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
With a staunch defence of Cameron Smith, Ian Baker-Finch believes playing LIV Golf events on more challenging layouts before major championships could be a game changer for Australia’s fallen superstar.
With a second-straight Masters flop, Smith has now missed the cut at the past six majors, prompting critics to once again question the 2022 Open champ’s decision to defect to the Saudi-backed league when he was world No.2.
“The correlation would be that he has played not as well over the last couple of years since he went there,” Baker-Finch said at Augusta National.
“But I don’t think it’s a matter of, ‘hey, I’m comfortable here, I’m not practising as hard, I don’t care anymore’.
“A lot of people have insinuated that and, in his defence, I don’t think that’s the case.”
Baker-Finch, though, agrees with the notion that LIV stars playing easy courses with crazily low winning totals doesn’t help them prepare for tests like Augusta.
Of the 10 who teed up at the 90th Masters, Tyrrell Hatton was the only contender while, like Smith, the much-fancied Bryson DeChambeau missed the halfway cut.
“Golf is a game of coming back from mistakes and you don’t have that really on LIV because it’s gung-ho golf,” former European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley told the Golf Channel.
“It’s getting to 22, 25 under par to try to win the tournaments because that’s the way they’re set up.
“So it’s a mental adjustment more than anything else and they’re not prepared for it when they come in here.”
A former Open champion like Smith, Baker-Finch added: “If they were playing more difficult courses that were more similar to here, that would be a good decision because that would help them be in better performance condition when they did come in here.”
Smith’s lack of sharpness has never been more evident than this week when the former runner-up – who boasted four top-six Masters finishes between 2018 and 2024 – played the first two rounds in seven over.
Similarly to Smith’s record, Baker-Finch finished tied for sixth the year after winning his Open in 1991, then had another top-10 two years later before missing 10 major cuts in a row and quitting tournament golf at 36.
Smith tied for sixth at Augusta two years after reigning at St Andrews in 2022 and enjoyed two more major top-10s in 2023 before his struggles only really started last year.
Baker-Finch is adamant Smith “is still a world-class player” capable of returning to the top.
Worryingly, though, the now-world No.222’s five-year automatic exemption into three of golf’s four majors expires at the end of 2027.
“You don’t lose your talent. The talent doesn’t go away. You’ve just got to rekindle the confidence and the self-belief,” Baker-Finch said.
“He could have, should have won the Australian Open (in December), so it’s not like he’s not playing well. It’s just not making the cuts in the majors, not performing.
“He’s got to be in a mental funk right now, having performed so poorly when he’d practised so hard and got himself ready to go play.
“That’s the hardest thing. Just deep down in your own mind, you feel so bad about your performance. I know the feeling.
“He just has to try and find a way to keep believing.”
