The Open 2023: Cameron Smith 'holding back from tears' ahead of defence

The fourth and final major of the men's season is upon us with The Open set to get underway at Royal Liverpool Golf Club on Thursday and Cameron Smith was one of the early arrivals on the Merseyside coast. The Australian, who controversially switched over to LIV Golf in the wake of his victory at St Andrews last year, got straight to work preparing to defend the title that he won in nail-biting fashion over Cameron Young and Rory McIlory.

Ad Before Smith could truly get into the groove and begin going through the motions, the 29-year-old had to do one thing, hand back the famous Claret Jug to the R&A, and he admitted the emotion of the moment caught him off guard. The Open'It's a shame' — Garcia to miss Open Championship for first time since 199704/07/2023 AT 21:35 «I thought I was going to do all right, but I was actually holding back from tears,» Smith said in his pre-tournament press conference.

«A bit of a moment, I guess, that crept up on me. »I wasn't like not letting it go, but it was just a bit of a moment that I guess you don't think about and then all of a sudden it's there, and, yeah, you want it back.” McIlroy stuns MacIntyre with birdie-birdie finish to win Scottish Open 'If LIV Golf was the last place to play golf on Earth, I would retire' — McIlroy The Brisbane native, who is coming into this week off the back of a victory at LIV Golf’s London event at the Centurion Club where he edged out Patrick Reed by a shot, is determined that his separation from the Claret Jug is only temporary, confidently suggesting to those closest to him that celebrations could well get underway again come Sunday night.

“I've been saying to all my mates, 'It'll only be a week and we'll be drinking out of it again'. You never