British golfer Jordan Smith has revealed he is confident he can have a big week at Royal Troon as he competes in his fourth attempt at The Open.
Jordan Smith has his eye on a spot in Luke Donald’s 2025 Ryder Cup team as he competes at the Open this week.
Smith is currently 96th in the world and rated at 200/1 for victory, and is seeking a first major win after finishing T2 at the recent BMW International in Germany.
Speaking exclusively to Betway, Smith has also tipped up Rory McIlroy to bounce back from his US Open collapse and said ‘of course’ Robert MacIntyre can go back-to-back wins to be victorious in his home country this week.
You appear in good form ahead of The Open, how are you feeling ahead of teeing off?
It was a great week out in Germany at the BMW International, a lot of good things happened and we knew it was close to getting it over the line.
Last week, though, unfortunately things didn’t quite click. The damage was done on the Thursday. I played a lot better on Friday, but couldn’t quite get those shots back to make the cut.
That did, however, mean I was able to get to Troon a day earlier so we’ve been able to spend a lot of time out on the course getting my prep done. I’m feeling very good ahead of the week.
Any area of your game particularly needing attention?
The main attention for us this week has just been getting out there on the course. There’s so many different varieties of holes and shots we need to hit this week.
With it being right on the coast you obviously have the wind constantly changing direction. It’s nine holes out, and nine holes back in, so the main thing is that we’ve managed to spend a lot of time out on the course.
We’ve spent a lot of time chipping around the greens and out of bunkers, using 8-irons all the way through to lob-wedge and putters.
It’s just getting used to a different variety of shots this week, and getting to know the course as well as we can.
What are your memories of playing at Troon?
I was trying to think about my memories of Troon the other day, I played in the British Amateur Championships there around 2011 or 2012. It’s been a long time since I’ve been back there, they’ve made a few changes, lengthened a few of the holes.
Do you think Rory McIlroy needs to find a way to take pressure off himself?
Rory is a leader. He put himself in that position when the LIV/PGA divide happened and it’s similar to what Tiger Woods has done.
The tour needed that to help keep as many top golfers as they can on the PGA Tour. He put a lot of pressure on himself, and he was in the limelight a lot, but he did what was best for him in stepping back from that.
He is probably one of the best golfers that has ever lived, and certainly one of the best out there at the moment, so he is always in the limelight and always gets criticised for everything that he does.
He is a leader, and the PGA Tour needs him because he draws such a big crowd and he moves the needle quite a lot in the game.
What’s he like with fellow professionals?
I’ve been lucky enough to play with him a few times. Even today, I was getting some treatment on the physio table and he was there.
He’s happy enough to chat to anyone, he’s just a normal guy and I think that’s why so many people like him. When I’ve played with him he’s been great and happy to talk about anything and everything.
It wasn’t ideal in the US Open the other week, but I think he’s definitely learned from that loss. If it’s not this year, I can see him getting one over the line next year.
What has changed for Robert MacIntyre and his transformation?
He had a great year in 2023, making the Ryder Cup team and getting out to the USA with a PGA Tour card. He then went out to America, and it is tough for the Europeans when they go out there.
Obviously, he was coming off the back of a lot of confidence and playing great. I know he struggled a little bit at the start of the PGA Tour season, but it wasn’t long until he felt a little bit more comfortable out there.
Then, with his dad bringing a familiar face for him as a caddy, he won at the Canadian Open. From there, his confidence was through the roof and he came back to win in Scotland on familiar ground.
Confidence is a massive factor. Of course Bob MacIntyre can win The Open. He’s used to the links courses and he’s great in the wind so he’ll definitely be one to watch this week.
Who can win the Open?
You can’t exclude Xander Schauffle or Scottie Scheffler either, with the way both of them have been playing this year. It will just depend on which side of the draw they are in and how they control their ball in the wind.
What does Matt Fitzpatrick need to do to get back into the groove?
The weird thing with golf is, you could have the worst week of the year one week but end up winning the next.
It’s just a matter of when and where. Confidence is a huge thing in any sport and once you have that you can go anywhere. It’s tough when you’re not playing your best, it’s hard to get out of the slump.
I’m not sure he even is in a slump but I’m sure he will get back to his top form soon as he’s a top-10 player.
How about being back in front of the British crowds?
The British crowds really are the best thing about being back in the UK. When you’re playing in Ireland, Scotland and England, you’re guaranteed to have a big crowd, so it’s great.
I just wish we had a couple more chances to play in front of a UK crowd. It is great having these home events.
Is links golf the purest form of the game?
Yeah, links golf is definitely the purest form of the game.
One of my favourite tournaments to play in was The Open at St Andrews two years ago. I’ve never seen the course looking like that, it was completely burned out, it was yellow.
You really had to think about how you were hitting shots into the green. If you were in the rough, you were having to land it 20, 30, 40 yards short of the greens and really work your ball around the golf course.
I thought that was a lot of fun and it made things very interesting, it bought a wider variety of shots. It really is the purest form of golf and how things started.
Overall, where is your game at right now?
It’s been okay, obviously we’re always striving for better but I’m reasonably happy with how the year has gone but there’s a lot of big tournaments coming up. We’re aiming to have a better second part of the season, win some trophies and get into the top 10 for the Race To Dubai.
What are the key differences with links golf?
Links golf is a completely different approach to the game. With golf out in America or at a course like Wentworth, it’s more target golf. You’re landing the ball where you want it to finish.
With links golf, you have to really think about where you’ve got to finish. It could be 20, 30 yards from where you land the ball, so you really have to think about how much it’s going to run and release.
The wind is a massive factor, you can get 40mph winds, and you’ll be having to use the wind on certain shots or hit shots drawing against wind on the next hole.
You just really have to think about your shots more on links golf as well as more regular courses.
For the Ryder Cup, Ryan Fox has marked you as a future European captain – what do you make of that?
I get on with Foxy very well and that’s a very nice thing for him to say, but making that Ryder Cup team in two years’ time is, at the moment, my main goal.
I feel like if I play the golf I can play, then I can make the team, but obviously there’s a lot of factors that have to go into that. Yeah, that’s definitely our main goal for the next two years.
How optimistic are you? The captain’s pick could be a way in
It was a six-and-six split last year, so obviously if I can’t play my way in, I’ll try my best to show Luke Donald that I have all of the factors in my game and temperament required to play in the Ryder Cup.
Everything we’re doing at the moment is based around me getting into that team.
Getting results is the main thing, but it’s also about having that drive and hunger to get the best out of your reality. Even if you’re not having the best day, showing you have the drive and hunger to make the cut is huge.
That’s something which I felt like I did on the Sunday in Germany at the PGA International. Going for shots when I needed to, and putting the guy who was leading under pressure.
So, I think playing well is great, as results and winning is one way of getting in, but I think another way is showing you’ve got that drive and determination to take on shots to put pressure on the people around you.
What do you make of condensing all four majors into a four-month period?
I guess ideally for the viewers, press and production it would be ideal if it was all a bit more spread out. I don’t really know how that has happened. It does seem like a quick turnaround from one major to the other.
I think I quite like how it is at the moment. You can get on a nice sort of run, but these weeks do take it out of you. After a major you need a week off to relax and debrief.
It does take a lot out of you mentally and physically, so I think it would benefit all golfers as a whole if it was a bit more spread out a little bit more.
How do you rate the current crop of British golfers?
It’s great, we’ve got Tommy Fleetwood up there with Justin Rose and the Fitzpatrick brothers as well leading the way.
There’s a few younger golfers coming through as well, with Bob MacIntyre winning as well at the Scottish Open. It is nice to see British golfers coming up through the ranks on different tours, it certainly spurs us on to keep going.
LIV golf clearly isn’t going away – how divisive has it been in your opinion?
I think, more recently, there hasn’t been as much of a divide between players from different tours.
At the start, people didn’t really know what the situation was going to be between people from LIV and the PGA Tour. Now, it’s a lot more relaxed and I don’t think anyone is really bothered by the guys who are choosing to go to LIV.
The end game is that they need to try and get the best players in the world playing together on a regular basis, so all the tours have to come together and figure out how that can be done.
I think that eventually will happen, but it’ll just take time.
Is it a case of having their cake and eating it when it comes to playing in the majors – getting big paychecks for both LIV and the big tournaments
It was certainly a case of that when it all started out. There were large sums of money flying around, and the guys who were going to LIV were annoyed that they weren’t able to play in the PGA Tour, DP World Tour or Ryder Cup.
Now, it has become a lot more relaxed, and they’re now realising that they need the guys on LIV, DP World Tour and PGA Tour to come together and make it more of a product by getting the best players in the world all together.
They need all the best players in the majors, which isn’t happening at the moment, because they’re struggling for world ranking points through playing in LIV.
So, by all the tours coming together, eventually we will make a better product for golf and the viewers.
Martin Slumbers, who is leaving the R&A, has suggested that perhaps there is too much investment at the top of golf and it’s troubling the foundations of the game
Obviously, with LIV having endless amounts of money, at the start it frightened the PGA Tour, so they had to bump up their prize money to keep as many players as they could.
Now, I can’t see it increasing more than what it already is at the moment. LIV has set that bar, and hopefully once the tours come together it will all settle down and that bar will remain.
There is a lot of money floating about, but we’ll see what happens in the future with the other tours.
What could the PGA learn from LIV in terms of innovations?
I watched the first two events just to see what it was like. I think that the team side of it is good but that’s it really.
I think that the events need to be four rounds, there needs to be a cut as well. I think that the team element is the only real thing that I would like to see in future.
Bryson DeChambeau has become a huge YouTube star – is it important for golf for personalities to shine through?
I think that the average golfer definitely goes to YouTube for tips on their game. Bryson DeChambeau is obviously known for his long hitting and that side of things, which makes him stand out from the crowd.
That’s what has gained him a big following and I think that the younger generation all seem to like what he is doing in the game.
It’s becoming the case more and more. I think that in the future we will see more golfers going to YouTube and uploading videos every day. What Bryson has done has been great, he’s turned it around from when he first started on the tour.
He probably wasn’t the most liked player, but then he made an image for himself by becoming this bombing golfer. It’s great to have him at a tournament, because he draws a crowd.
I’m not the best at instructing or being on camera so you won’t catch me following Bryson into YouTube any time soon!
Do you use a sports psychologist?
I never thought I would really need a sports psychologist, the ones I’d spoken to all seemed to state the obvious which was all common sense.
Then, I was lucky enough to speak with who I’m working with now, Karl Steptoe. He worked with Ollie Wilson, who was great, winning the Dunhill Links, but then lost his game before Karl helped him turn things around.
It’s good just to have a chat, that first chat I just knew what I needed to do with the mental side of things. So I started working with him from the middle of last year.
I don’t think I had any big mental scars before, but it has just helped me with the little things in the big moments. It has definitely been a big help for me and I have definitely benefited from the time I’ve spent with Karl.
He was at Tottenham for a number of years, then he was at Leicester for ten years. Now, he has a couple of golfers he works with.
What football team do you support?
I’m a Liverpool fan. Obviously, growing up in the West Country there weren’t any decent teams! So from that I started supporting Liverpool and have done so ever since.
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