2021 Tour Championship: Top 10 power rankings at East Lake
You’d have to look back to June to find the last time Cameron Smith put forth a clunker of a result. The mulleted, mustachioed Aussie has finished T-33rd or better in six straight events.
He had a chance at his third career PGA Tour title here in the FedEx Cup Playoffs when he reached a two-man playoff with Tony Finau for The Northern Trust.
Unfortunately a drive out of bounds on the first extra hole spelled doom for Smith. Still, there were more positives than negatives to take away from Liberty National.
Smith did enough last week at the BMW Championship to set himself up to be in shouting range five shots back of leader Patrick Cantlay to open the Tour Championship.
Smith fired three rounds in the 60s at Caves Valley to land on the top half of the leaderboard in T-34th.
Smith qualified for his third Tour Championship. He has a great chance to improve on a personal best 20th place in 2018 and T-24th (T-22nd gross) a year ago.
The 28-year-old is at a career high 23rd in the Official World Golf Rankings.
Smith ranks 21st on the PGA Tour in total strokes gained (1.217) and is one of the most proficient with the flat stick. Smith sits ninth in SG putting (.614).
Scores don’t tend to be crazy low at East Lake, but potentially favorable weather conditions could be conducive to red numbers. That’s Smith’s M.O. as he’s second in birdie average (4.5).
Another superlative is Smith’s fine bunker play. Aussies used to playing sand belt golf have a stereotype for this excellence and Smith is third in sand saves (63.7%).