EXCLUSIVE'There was food poisoning and a few beers but I struggle to remember the rest!' The architect of a famous comeback at St Andrews, CAMERON SMITH reflects on his whirlwind Open win in 2022

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There is a good reason why Cameron Smith can only remember patchy details from the best week of his career. But there is one small memory he hasn't shared previously and it's making him smile.

It goes back to July 2022, St Andrews, and occurred shortly after his arrival in golf's most iconic town for the 150th Open Championship.

'You know, I actually got food poisoning,' he tells Mail Sport. 'I had eaten some oysters one night at dinner and, yeah, it was a pretty uncomfortable Monday and Tuesday.

'I managed to work it out!'

Smith can laugh about it now because, as he says, it worked out. History shows that from such an iffy spot he acquired the Claret Jug with one of the greatest closing rounds ever witnessed in his sport's grandest major.

Among the four LIV Golf winners of the Open, Cameron Smith is the most recent one

Two years ago he won at St Andrews after beating Cameron Young by one stroke

To watch him dismantle the Old Course that day, to see how he hauled in Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland from their overnight lead of four strokes, was to view a masterclass.

That Smith, 30, can barely recall more than a couple of shots from the Sunday 64 with which he pulled it off could stand as a definition of being in the zone. It's the place where everything is natural, easy and second nature. 'Autopilot,' he calls it, and not many golfers can reach that state when the stakes are at their highest.

'It's hard to believe it was two years ago,' he says. 'I don't even know if it's sunk in. But honestly, I really can't remember much about the final round. It was all such a blur for me.

'I can remember bits from the week — there was the food poisoning and I had a couple of quiet beers with a few mates one night. I remember that. And I remember phoning my parents at home in Australia after winning — that was pretty cool.

'But not much from that final round. There was my tap-in on 18 to win and for some reason I remember my tee shot off 11. The rest is a blur.

'It's interesting. I speak to Matt Jones (a fellow Australian golfer on the LIV circuit) about this. He can remember what shot he hit on the third hole five years ago at some golf course. I mean it's weird but I have never been able to do that, to be honest. I think for me as a golfer, trying not to remember the last shot is almost a blessing in disguise.

Smith kisses the Claret Jug after winning the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews in 2022

'So that's probably one of the reasons that I can't remember much. But it definitely gets worse when I'm in contention, I'll put it that way.

'Yeah, it's a nice feeling. When you're playing really good golf, it kind of becomes easy and you go into autopilot. You're not even really thinking about your swing or what you're trying to do. It's almost like that stuff just goes out the window.'

Out it went and in through the door came Smith's first major victory. It was also something of a turning point in his career for other well-documented reasons, because rumours about a move to LIV led to questions immediately after that victory.

As Smith prepares to try to regain the Claret Jug at Troon this week, conversations around golf's new frontier are far less charged, replaced with drier discussions about where the sport goes next and the glacial negotiations around a merger that is yet to materialise.

Smith has never made a secret of the financial incentives around his switch — it was worth about £92million to him — but the vastly reduced schedule in comparison to the PGA Tour has also energised him. He doesn't regret his decision in the slightest.

'I honestly haven't been happier in life,' he says, though there is an admission that part of the joy of weeks like this one is they bring the best golfers into the same orbit again.

His hope is that whatever shape the future takes, it will be a more regular occurrence.

Smith pictured playing his tee shot during Day 3 of the 2022 ISPS HANDA Australian Open at Victoria Golf Club on December 03, 2022 (above)

That was Smith's last event as a PGA Tour professional as he switched to LIV Golf

Smith has never made a secret of the financial incentives around his switch — it was worth about £92m to him — but the vastly reduced schedule in comparison to the PGA Tour helped

'I think it would be nice to get us all together maybe a couple more times,' he says. 'Out of all of this, the majors have probably won the most — they get us all back and I think the receptiveness from those guys (the four majors) has been really good, particularly this year.

'I don't know where it goes from here. But I'd love to play against those guys more often.

'For me, I am really happy where I am at. I enjoy the team competition and I got to spend three months at home in Australia at the end of last year and I haven't been able to do that since I was probably 19 or 20 years old.

'I've always been chasing my butt, playing golf tournaments, making sure I was playing the golf tournaments I had to play to really keep my job. To have an off-season is unreal.'

Smith is not alone in thinking it 'would be a fun one-off' if some form of LIV versus PGA Tour match could be arranged, but as ever with golf's uncertain landscape the orchestration would be problematic.

'If we're going do it, it would probably have to happen pretty soon,' he says. 'I don't know how much longer these negotiations are going to go on for.'

At this stage, few have an answer to that. There are plenty on both sides of the divide who have taken a hands-on role in the process and there are others, like Smith, who is notoriously laid back and blissfully indifferent to the political drama.

He concurs with the perception that the likes of Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau, who each share a close relationship with Yasir Al Rumayyan, the governor of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, have adopted a far keener interest in the machinations of power than him.

The time has certainly passed since there was a doubt over whether LIV golfers would be sufficiently prepared by their new environment for the majors

'I think you've hit the nail on the head there with those two,' he says. 'There's definitely a few nosier guys and there's also a lot of guys that just kind of take what comes to them, which is probably me and a lot of others.

'But there's definitely a sense of trying to make this product better and trying to make this tour the best it can be for everyone and I would think that all of us are really behind the product.'

The time has certainly passed since there was a doubt over whether LIV golfers would be sufficiently prepared by their new environment for the majors.

Brooks Koepka's win at the US PGA Championship last year nipped the conversation in the bud and it has been followed by DeChambeau winning the US Open last month. For his part, Smith has had three top-nine finishes in the seven he has played since crossing over, including a tie for sixth at the Masters in April.

'Bryson at the US Open was a pretty cool scene,' says Smith, who suspects Dean Burmester and Joaquin Niemann are each close to joining the roll call of LIV's major winners. 'I think for all of us out here having one of your colleagues win a major is great. I think as far as next up, I also feel like my game is good enough to do it.'

No one who saw Smith at St Andrews would waste much time querying if he was capable of repeating the feat this week. With or without a diet of oysters.