Clutch Cam

Deadlines create pressure.

They bring stress. Anxiety.

Some falter under the stress. Others thrive.

Just ask Cameron Smith. He fits firmly in the latter category.

The 24-year-old Australian, who forms half of the defending duo at this week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans, has already proven his propensity to perform his best when the pressure is highest.

Just look at last year’s Monday finish at TPC Louisiana, where Smith clinched the title by knocking a wedge to 3 feet on the fourth hole of a sudden-death playoff.

“He has a sense of occasion,” says his long-time coach, Grant Field.

And it all started, unexpectedly, with a missed deadline.

Smith has shown his mettle many times since missing his tee time at Web.com Tour Q-School in November 2013.

He turned up to The Woodlands Country Club near Houston for his Wednesday practice round, only to find that the tournament had already begun and his tee time had passed. He was duly disqualified. Smith had mistakenly assumed play started on Thursday.

It was a costly error, but one that woke the youngster up.

“In a way it helped him,” Field says. “It was a brutal lesson to learn but he just got on with it. He didn’t dwell on it. He got back to business. He certainly didn’t let it define him.”

And so Smith played on the Asian Tour four years ago as a fresh-faced teenager, a former Australian Amateur champion trying to figure a path that would one day land him in the United States.

He circled the 2014 CIMB Classic, where the top 10 on the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit got to compete alongside PGA TOUR players in the co-sanctioned event, as an important opportunity.

He had four top-10 finishes, including a runner up at the Indonesian Masters, through six events, but he was just outside the mark as the CIMB Classic approached.

Needing a decent result at the Hong Kong Open, Smith stepped up. He finished ninth to take the last spot afforded to Asian Tour players.

Seeing an opening for a quick path to the PGA TOUR, Smith finished T5. He’d proven he could hang with the big guys.

Knowing he could receive up to seven sponsor exemptions, Smith was confident he would find a home on the PGA TOUR. But five missed cuts and nothing better than a T15 afterwards had seemingly crushed his chances.

Enter a new deadline.

LIFE AT A CROSSROADS

Days after missing the cut at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide, Smith sat in a rain delay at the U.S. Open sectional qualifier in Columbus, Ohio. He was facing the prospect of returning to Asia or perhaps the Web.com Tour.

He sat outside the qualification mark for a trip to Chambers Bay and his life felt like it was at a crossroads of sorts.

“I knew I needed to pull my finger out and get something going. I’d been working hard on my game and not seeing results. I was a bit annoyed. So, I figured – stuff it – I’m going to go back out aggressively,” Smith said.

He birdied four of six holes to book a trip to his first major championship.

“No big deal,” he said at the time.

But what happened a few weeks later was a pretty big deal.

He needed a high finish at Chambers Bay, the futuristic links course carved out of a gravel pit, to keep his PGA TOUR dreams alive. He was still on the leaderboard after 71 holes but he needed a miraculous finish to earn his playing privileges for next season.

Standing 290 yards from the 18th green, he knew he needed to get down in two shots. He needed to eagle the 72nd hole of the U.S. Open. No simple task.

Smith had asked his caddie on the tee what he thought their chances were of getting home in two. The reply was he’d need “a bloody good drive.”

He gave it his all but still had nearly 300 yards remaining for his second shot.

“It was on a slight upslope which helped a bit, but I knew I had to have a crack. The stage was set to go hard or go home,” he said at the time.

The thunderous roar that would come soon after his piercing 3-wood landed on the green, rolled around some slopes and finally came to rest at tap-in range was one he will never forget.

“It was spine-tingling. It was crazy,” he says now. “It is still the coolest moment and shot I’ve had in golf.”

His fourth-place finish earned him special temporary membership and ultimately his TOUR card for the 2015-16 season, not to mention a Masters invite and return trip to the U.S. Open.

In a whirlwind, his life had changed. But, to be fair, perhaps he wasn’t ready for it.

While Jordan Spieth, the same age, had won his second major at Chambers Bay, Smith was still every bit a young man.

A young man who clung very tightly to the comforts of his homeland.

As he navigated his first full season on the PGA TOUR, two sicknesses conspired against him. A long-term stomach issue that would strip him of weight and strength. And a hardcore case of homesickness.

COUNTRY KID

Smith grew up in the suburbs of Brisbane, Australia. While it is the capital city of Queensland, it is essentially a large country town known for its laid-back ethos.

It is nicknamed “the Sunshine State” for a reason. It’s tropical and full of gorgeous beaches. Think the Great Barrier Reef.

They’re a mostly happy bunch up there. And they – for the most part – stay put.

Queenslanders like their footy (rugby league) and a drink with their mates above most else. They branch out to other sports – Australian rules football, cricket, car racing -- and they also like their golf.

They worship their slice of paradise and will protect it to no end. They’re a parochial lot that has no problem pointing out that all three Australian golfers who have hit world No. 1 are from their state.

But at the same time, they try to never let one of their own grow arrogant enough to forget where he’s from. Queenslanders are a “we” bunch. Not “I.”

His local Wantima Golf Club – where his father Des is an established competitor who plays off a scratch handicap – is a place of fun and friends. There has never been a stuck-up or snooty vibe there.

“You can get a little bit caught up in all over here in the U.S., but I get it beaten out of me pretty quick,” Smith said of the elitist attitude that can befall some youngsters when wealth and fame is thrust upon them. “The guys back home at the golf club bring you back to Earth, which is so nice. One of the best traits of Australians is taking the mickey out of your mates, keeping them grounded.”

Des never heaped pressure on Smith, in itself another huge help in his development.

Short of “the quietest car ride of our lives” when Smith, then 12, first beat his dad in the weekly Sunday competition, his father has always been there with encouragement.

“Cam was always allowed to play badly. He was never discouraged for failure and there were no repercussions for that. It was very beneficial,” Field says. “Des said he didn’t care if Cameron ever made a dollar out of golf. He was gaining plenty of life experience in the sport and staying out of trouble.”

On first impression, Smith is still a shy country kid. He couldn’t even speak on camera after sinking the winning putt at last year’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

He still enjoys the comforts of Queensland and tinkering with his race cars.

So he tried unsuccessfully to play his first PGA TOUR seasons out of Australia. He quickly found it was too difficult to face the world’s best players from a continent away.

His adjustment to golf’s highest level was made even more difficult after he lost even more weight off of his small frame with what doctors thought was a parasite.

“I was … basically a skeleton with skin on it,” Smith says. “From a stability and power standpoint it hurt me. I couldn’t keep up with the long stuff at all.”

In 24 starts, Smith failed to get a top-10 finish during his true rookie year. He headed to the Web.com Tour Finals after finishing 157th in the FedExCup.

Halfway through the four-event Finals, his management team called to ask if he wanted to be entered into Web.com Tour Q-School. Just in case.

Smith said no. He was going to earn his card.

“He went out and finished second. Clinched his card. That’s pretty special,” Field recalls.

THE BIG WIN

Last season was a life-changer for Smith.

Through 15 events, Smith had shown more consistency. He’d missed just three cuts and posted two top-10s. He looked a solid bet to retain playing privileges, but it was a surprise when he and Jonas Blixt built a four-shot lead after three rounds last year at TPC Louisiana

And when Kevin Kisner and Scott Brown went bananas with 10 birdies in their first 11 holes on Sunday, not many expected Smith would be the one to respond.

But hey, he was once again under the gun. Three birdies to open his back nine and an important one on the 17th hole had his team back in business. A sublime wedge on the 72nd hole to close range had seemingly sealed the deal for his first PGA TOUR win.

Then Kisner holed a chip for eagle and Smith had to make his short putt just for extra holes. He did.

In the playoff the following day it was Smith who ultimately made the winning play and putt.

Smith was now a TOUR winner. With the win, he dreamed of buying a high-end Nissan GT-R (which he did). He also wanted to take advantage of his job security and return to Australia for a few long stints.

“’How good is this,’ is what I thought at the time. My schedule is set, I can spend as much time as I want at home,” Smith recalls.

He took his tricked-out Subaru WRX to his favorite race track and met his famous namesake, the rugby star who is one of Australia’s most famous athletes.

He loved it all, but his game suffered.

Smith played just 10 TOUR events in the 5 ½ months following his win. He missed the cut in seven of them, costing him a chance at his first Presidents Cup appearance.

“At the end of the season … I had a truth session with myself,” he said.

He had a home on the PGA TOUR – the Zurich win came with a two-year exemption – but now he needed to find a home more permanently in the United States.

He settled in America’s version of the Sunshine State. Smith bought a new home in Ponte Vedra Beach, just a couple of well struck drives from TPC Sawgrass.

With his mind more settled Smith closed last year with a victory in the Australian PGA Championship, his first official individual title (the Zurich Classic awards FedExCup points but is not included in the world ranking).

“Some people were questioning my win at Zurich as it was with a teammate but to win alone, at home, was very special.”

That win came in Queensland and the time spent once again intensified the homesickness.

But Smith knows he’ll need to spend more time in the States now.

The contingent of Australians who live in northeast Florida’s coastal communities have eased the transition. And sometimes Australia comes to him. Prior to the Masters, he had some of his closest friends from Australia come hang out in Florida and then in Augusta.

They grilled steaks, sipped drinks and played video games, just like the old days. He fired up his drone and talked about photography, one of his passions that can elicit more excitement than a well-struck golf shot.

While some players arrive at Augusta National the week before the Masters, Smith’s laid-back approach paid off. A final-round 66, with a blistering back-nine 30, gave him a fifth-place finish.

Just getting there had been evidence of success at another deadline.

The World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play was the last week to earn a Masters invitation via the world ranking. Smith knew he needed to make the quarterfinals to crack the top 50 in the OWGR. He did both.

The Masters was his fifth top 10 in 12 starts this season. He ranks 25th in the FedExCup thanks to his third-place finish at THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES and three fifth-place finishes (CIMB Classic, WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, Masters).

Spieth, Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele and Daniel Berger may headline the famed Class of 2011, but it’s worth noting that Smith also can be included in that group. And his sights are now set on achieving the heights they have.

He likes being clutch, but he’d also love to be consistent.

“I feel I am ahead of where I thought I might be,” Smith says. “Hopefully sometime soon I can catch up to some or all of the achievements of the other guys my age.”

When asked when he hoped to add a second PGA TOUR win to his resume, Smith could only respond with “soon.”

Perhaps he should set a more definitive deadline. That’s when he performs best.