MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 11, 2024

Cam Smith

Quick Quotes

Q. Given the circumstances, are you happy to be under par after the week you've had?

CAM SMITH: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I think just with the prep not being probably as good as I wanted it to be and then the conditions today were pretty tough. I struck the ball really well and probably didn't have my best day with the putter. It was pretty tough on the greens, to be fair, anyway. Kind of gusty and fast.

Just got a little bit of cleanup to do with the putter and should be good.

Q. How do you feel about 1-under given the (indiscernible) that's going to be a bad round?

CAM SMITH: I wouldn't even say it was a bad round to be honest. I saw a few of the scores out there that were probably a little bit earlier. I know Scottie was the group in front of me.

But other than that, there was a bunch of guys that teed off really early and probably got a good nine or ten holes with not so much wind.

With the rain yesterday and the greens receptive. You could kind of see that. It was just a little bit tougher this afternoon.

Q. You got a touch unlucky on 3, probably could have dropped, and then on 12 it probably could have stayed up?

CAM SMITH: Yeah, I hit a good putt on 3. That was probably a little bit unlucky. 12 was a bit of a poor shot. It was just a bit of a crappy number and didn't really commit to the shot. It's just a tough hole.

It's a tough back nine. It's a tough golf course. It's going to be a tough week. You're going to get those. It was kind of hard to take, given that I'd played pretty good leading up into that, and to hand a couple shots back on a 130-meter hole is -- yeah.

Q. Talk about your mentality; six back after the first round; very much in it. What's the mentality when you're six back after the first day?

CAM SMITH: I think you've just got to stay in it around here. I think the course is going to get firmer and faster. You have that kind of hot moment where you have 4- or 5-under par for nine holes and you're right back in it. It's just kind of waiting for that to happen.

It's not even really trying to get ahead of yourself or trying to do anything. It's just much of the same stuff, just waiting for the putts to drop.

Q. What did The Open teach you about hanging in there?

CAM SMITH: Yeah, you've got to hang in there all the time. I'd like to think today I had some of my best stuff and that was a good sign, but probably over the next few days I'm not going to have my best stuff, and you've got to grind it out and stay in the tournament.

Q. What do you need to do personally to keep going up the leaderboard? What needs to really fire?

CAM SMITH: Nothing. Honestly, it felt really good today. Not too much to complain about. I think like that shot on 12, obviously, is a poor one, but like I said, you're going to get those around here. Probably a couple of putts that could have gone in.

If you take those away, all of a sudden it's 3- or 4-under pretty quickly and it's a really good day.