MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 9, 2021

Cameron Smith

Quick Quotes

Q. A second-round 68 has you 2-under at the 2021 Masters. How do you feel about that?

CAMERON SMITH: Quite frustrated, actually. I played some really good golf, and yeah, just to finish like that was quite disappointing. I felt like I had a lot going for me. I hit a lot of good shots coming in and just didn't really get anything out of it.

Obviously a bit of a silly mistake on 15, and yeah.

Q. You had a great start, 2, 3 and 4, birdies there, you charged up the leaderboard. How important was it to get some momentum into your round early.

CAMERON SMITH: Yeah, that's what I knew I had to do last night even. I knew I had to go out there, get a good start going. I knew I was swinging the club good. I knew I was doing everything well, just needed to go out there and kind of take advantage of the no wind and a bit softer conditions.

Q. Birdie on 8, great tee shot on 12 and then your approach on 13 set you up for eagle. You looked pretty happy about that.

CAMERON SMITH: Yeah, that was -- I've been quite fortunate actually on those two par-5s on the back. I've just had perfect numbers coming in there. It's nice when you can get up there and you're kind of confident and you can just hit it.

Q. 14 and 15 must have stung a little bit, especially those two holes.

CAMERON SMITH: Yeah, I mean, 14 hurt. I didn't really hit a bad shot there, I was just probably half a club out and we thought we were going to get a little flier out of the rough there, and just didn't jump and come up short, and that's probably not the best spot to leave yourself there. Yeah, learned something there.

And then 15 was 15. I mean, it was just rubbish, to be honest.

Q. You've had two top-5 experiences here at Augusta. What can you take from those experiences to bring into the weekend?

CAMERON SMITH: Probably just knowing that I can play well on the weekend around here. I think if we don't get any rain, hopefully we don't, I love the way the course is playing. I mean, I can play well here, I know it. I've done it before. That's probably what I'm going to take from it.

Q. When the greens are this fast, is there any push and pull between trying to hit it so it doesn't break so much at the hole and then worrying about the comebackers?

CAMERON SMITH: I actually think from inside three or four feet you have to hit them firm because there's literally like no grass there. There's no friction, so the ball is not going to move as much as what you think. I've missed quite a lot of probably 15-, 20-foot putts really high because there's just no friction from the grass pushing it.

But those four- or five-footers, I think you've just got to slam them in the back, as hard as it is to do.

Q. Is that different this year or is that kind of always the case at Augusta?

CAMERON SMITH: I haven't quite seen the course like this before. I think it's definitely a bit different this year, yeah.

Q. Are there other places like that, other courses like that?

CAMERON SMITH: I think a few other majors can get pretty crispy on the weekends especially. It's nice to have these conditions on Thursday and Friday.

Q. Because you'd like to see more of it this weekend?

CAMERON SMITH: Yeah, it's kind of what we grew up with at home, right. It's those firm, kind of crusty greens is what all the Aussies love.

Q. Good group, everyone was under par. Do you feel off the mojo or you don't really care?

CAMERON SMITH: It's definitely being in a group that's playing solid. Between the three of us I can only think of a handful of shots we missed today. Just really solid golf. Obviously you draw some confidence out of that, as well.

Q. 15 you said it's rubbish. Was that execution error, planning error, something else?

CAMERON SMITH: Probably planning. Didn't quite leave myself in the best spot off the tee. We were kind of hemming and hawing about trying to hit it in that greenside trap, which would have been fine, but it was still kind of a tough shot, still had to be kind of a nice high draw around there, and the miss was no good. So we just laid up. We laid up too far, and then just got a little bit too cute with the one coming in.

Q. Is that the hardest shot on the course do you think, the short approach to 15?

CAMERON SMITH: Yeah. It's right up there. You're hitting -- we probably had about 70 yards off a downhill with the grass coming into you. I mean, it's -- I thought I hit a pretty decent shot, but sometimes those downhill into the grainers, you get a little bit of grass in between them.

Q. Hard to judge distance on those shots, how the ball is going to come off the club face?

CAMERON SMITH: Yeah, sometimes you get some where the heel kind of digs in and it comes out fast, and other times you think you hit it quite good and it kind of rolls up the club face and comes out a bit high. It's just a tough shot.

Q. You and Jordan spent some time talking just walking to the next shot. Is that about the round and how you're playing or is that just about nothing to keep your mind free?

CAMERON SMITH: Yeah, just about nothing really. Just to get our minds off golf. I think we think about our shots too much, especially around here, so it's nice to get the mind off it.

Q. What was the subject?

CAMERON SMITH: Oh, I mean, you name it, whatever. Whatever.

Q. I don't think you both played the same hole great. It looked like you were trading momentum. Did it feel that way at all?

CAMERON SMITH: Perhaps a little bit. You know, it's probably something that we don't really think about, but definitely on the scorecard it definitely seemed that way.

Q. Do you guys know each other?

CAMERON SMITH: Yeah, I mean, I've been out here five or six years now, seen Jordan a bunch of times. He's a great bloke. I love him. He's one of the nicest guys on TOUR, so it's good to spend a couple of rounds with him.

Q. How was the difficulty level today compared to yesterday?

CAMERON SMITH: I mean, yesterday in that afternoon was pretty rough, to be honest. I think we definitely got the rough end of the draw for sure. Those greens were so firm, and it was quite windy for probably 80 percent of our round. So today was -- I mean, at least a couple strokes different for us.

Q. How would you describe the level of support for Jordan in your group from the patrons?

CAMERON SMITH: I mean, he's loved everywhere, isn't he. Everyone loves him. He's a very lovable guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy to talk to. He's a great guy to get some information off, golf and stuff like that. He's just a good guy to talk to.