Home pressure fully on Cam Smith and the Rippers at LIV Golf Adelaide

There will be plenty of home pressure on 2022 Open champion Cameron Smith and his all-Australian Rippers GC at LIV Golf Adelaide, which tees off at the Grange Golf Club in South Australia’s capital city on Thursday.

While the focus quite naturally will be on the team and individual competitions, there is also anticipation of the overall experience, which LIV Golf commissioner and chief executive Greg Norman has promised will better that of the inaugural 2023 event, which was named best event at the World Golf Awards.

With impressive figures of 77,000-plus fans walking through the gates last year, the target Norman has set is close to 100,000 this time. To boost interest not only has the 165-yard par-3 12th ‘Watering Hole’ received an upgrade with each player in the 54-strong field nominating a song of choice, but the organisers have also increased seating around the tee area and green to try and create an even more noisy atmosphere this time.

Last year, Chase Koepka aced the hole while Pat Perez was the only player in the field to birdie it on all three days of competition. Home hero Smith did not have a great time, however.

“To be honest, I was kind of sh--ting myself, and I probably hit the worst shot of the week by far,” Smith ahead of the event. “I think I fat flum-pushed it. It was so bad. I had about 50 metres left for my second shot. I got better gradually over the weekend, but it was pretty scary, to be honest, on that Friday afternoon.”

While defending champion Talor Gooch has been some way off the pace this year and is currently 10th in the individual standings, he will have plenty of good memories to draw on, It was at Adelaide that Gooch kicked off his run of three wins that eventually ensured end-of-season honours for the American who is now member of Brooks Koepka’s Smash GC, having moved on from the 4Aces.

Smith and Crushers captain Bryson DeChambeau had top-10 placings at the Masters in Augusta earlier this month and are 12th and seventh in the individual race while the Crushers, 2023 overall champions, lead the team race comfortably ahead of second-placed Legion XIII. DeChambeau’s men though had an indifferent outing at Miami where they finished sixth after two wins in a row at Jeddah and Hong Kong.

Not helping is the up and down form of the Crushers lineup that includes Anirban Lahiri. The India star has been in something of a slump stretching back to the Asian Tour’s International Series events in West Asia and thereafter the Indian Open where he did not even make the cut. Down in 27th place, Lahiri will be hoping to regain his touch alongside team-mates Paul Casey (8th) and Charkes Howell III (14th) and his second to Gooch at this venue last year should be a morale-booster.

Individual leader Joaquin Neimann of Chile won two of the first three events before Abraham Ancer of Mexico and South Africa’s Dean Burmester broke his run. The latter is third in the rankings behind Jon Rahm and Ancer in fifth, with the luckless Sergio Garcia – who has twice been unsuccessful in playoffs this year holding fourth position, some 40 points behind Neimann, who finished in a share of 22nd place at Augusta National.

Miami winners Legion XIII, second behind the Crushers, will be quietly fancying their chances at Adelaide with their captain, Rahm, in the top 10 at each of the five events played so far as will the all-

South African Stinger GC for whom Burmester and Charl Schwartzel had top-10 finishes at Adelaide last year.

And while home advantage may with Smith and his Rippers, expectations will be high too. They finished eighth last year and are in the same place in the team standings.

“Home advantage can definitely be a good thing and a bad thing at the same time," Smith said at a Rippers media interaction on Wednesday. “Obviously the support from the fans is amazing, but internally I think sometimes you can get caught out just trying a little bit too hard, trying to make a putt go in, trying to hit a shot close.

“I think the prep has been a little bit better this year. We probably haven't had as many commitments to do outside the golf course, which is nice, so we've had a little bit more time on the course. We've just got to treat it like another week, although it's really not for us. This is probably our biggest week of the year.”

Time will tell.