Greg Norman is being accused of robbing Cameron Smith of the risk to forge one in every of golfing’s nice careers after luring the British Open champion to his Saudi-backed insurrection league.
Polarizing analyst Brandel Chamblee in comparison Smith’s short-game wizardry to that of legends Seve Ballesteros and Tom Watson, and says the Australian seemed on a trail towards a couple of primary championship victories after reigning at St Andrews final July.
Instead, Smith is not able to even shield his identify at this week’s prestigious Players Championship in Florida after being suspended from the PGA Tour.
Smith lives at Jacksonville Beach, 10 mins from Players Stadium, and is fishing friends with path superintendent Jeff Plotts, but is personality non grata at TPC Sawgrass after, Chamblee says, being faulty by means of his idol Norman.
“It’s ironic to me that it might possibly be an Aussie that will keep another Aussie in Cameron Smith possibly from ascending to a spot where he’s considered the greatest player of all time (from Australia),” Chamblee informed the Golf Channel.
“Supplanting Peter Thomson, he had that kind of talent.
“Norman didn’t get there but (Smith) could have easily supplanted Greg Norman as the second-best player of all time from Australia. That’s at least in my view where Cameron Smith was headed.
“That’s what he’s turned his back on and a lot of it has to do with Greg Norman, and Cam Smith got a lot of bad advice from his agents and other people in the game around him trying to suck him into LIV.”
Chamblee misses staring at Smith play at the PGA Tour.
“He had the potential to be an absolutely great player,” he stated. “If you look at the qualities that he had, the age that he was, he was a great scrambler – and is likely (still) – a great scrambler, great putter, a great shot maker.
“Players like Tom Watson come to mind. At the age of 25 until (Watson) was 35, he had 35 wins, won eight major championships, really hit his stride at 27, which is what Cam Smith was last year.
“Twenty-seven, 28, 29, five wins, five wins, five wins in each of those years. Seven wins when he was 30 years of age, these prime years.
“And when you think of Seve Ballesteros, from the time he was 22 until he was 31 he won five majors. He set the world on fire and was fairly much the same type of player that we saw in Cameron Smith last year at St Andrews.
“These are exciting players – scramblers, they’re unpredictable, they break your heart and then they do monumentally unbelievable things.”
Smith, nonetheless global No 5 regardless of no longer receiving ratings issues enjoying LIV Golf, stays eligible to contest the 4 annual majors for a minimum of 5 years.
But Chamblee fears the Queenslander – and different LIV stars like former Masters champion Dustin Johnson – will lack a aggressive edge at Augusta National subsequent month for the season’s first primary.
“You cannot convince me that playing week-in and week-out against the very best players in the very best competitions doesn’t make you sharper,” he stated.
“Think the place they’ll be per week sooner than the Masters, normally the most efficient avid gamers on this planet within the week sooner than the Masters pass in, get a way of ways the golfing path is enjoying after which perhaps pass house and apply on like stipulations with like grasses.
“(The LIV avid gamers are) going to be in Orlando at Crooked Cat, placing on grainy Bermuda (grass). It’s no approach to get ready for a big championship.”