Q Golf - Official online magazine for Golf Queensland Spring 2013 | Page 10

Cam Smith Moves
up a Gear
Brisbane lad makes good is always a
newsworthy story, but it rarely generates
more than a little local interest – except if
your name is Cameron Smith.
Smith, from the northern suburbs of
Brisbane, became a national story
when he won the Australian junior
championship and the Australian amateur
stroke play in 2001.
Last year he was the Australian amateur
medallist and earlier this year he captured
the prestigious Australian amateur
championship. After winning the
national championship, Smith turned
professional … more than six months
earlier than originally planned.
I ask Smith if winning the Australian
amateur championship was the catalyst to
joining the play-for-pay ranks.
“No, not really,” he said. “I always had a
plan to turn professional this year, but I
didn’t think it was going to be this early.
It ended up that way because I really
wanted to go to the next level.”
By turning professional, Smith forfeited
the chance to play in the US amateur
championship – a tournament in which
fellow Australian Oliver Goss finished
runner-u