Masterful mullet: Cam Smith's hair-raising round at Augusta
AUGUSTA, Ga. — The breeze blew in from the south, strong enough to straighten the yellow flag on the 18th green. And there, holding the lead in the Masters, stood Cam Smith, his glorious mullet whipping like a car dealer’s American flag.
You show up in Augusta with a Tennessee Waterfall like Smith’s sporting, and you’d better have some game to prevent the green jackets from bum-rushing you right back down Magnolia Lane. On Thursday, Smith did exactly that, carding an eight-birdie, 4-under round that gave him the clubhouse lead. It could have been, should have been, a better run — Smith bookended his round with double bogeys — but it was enough to give him the clubhouse lead he'd eventually relinquish to South Korea's Sungjae Im (-5).
“I think 1 and 18 was obviously really frustrating. I think it'll motivate me the next few days,” he said after the round. “I feel like I played some really solid golf today, and to be 4-under is a little bit disappointing. But given the condition of the golf course and the condition with the wind and stuff like that, if you had have given me 4-under at the start of the day, I would have taken it.”
With his cascade of locks and dirt-lip mustache, Smith looks like he’s rocking a Creepy Redneck costume from Spirit Halloween. It’s his brand, and It has everyone from gallery patrons to Masters legends talking.
“I’d love to see how he’s accepted with that long hair in the clubhouse,” Gary Player said of Smith earlier Thursday. “They might tell him to get a haircut.”
That’s exactly what happened to Ben Crenshaw back in 1972. When introduced to then-Augusta National chairman Clifford Roberts, Crenshaw, then still an amateur, was sporting what passed for long hair on a golfer back then. Roberts pointed out that Augusta National had a barbershop, and Crenshaw got the hint, ducking in for a quick trim before his tournament.
The barbershop is no more, but there’s still a level of decorum that pervades Augusta, and Smith’s "stache" and Missouri Compromise still stand a Dechambeau drive beyond that. But talent makes everyone more handsome, and Smith rolled into Augusta on the hottest streak of any player not named Scottie Scheffler. He’s coming off an impressive win in the Players Championship just a few weeks ago, and he already feels at home in Augusta despite only playing in his sixth to date.
Thus far, the Aussie has finished second, fifth and 10th in three of his last four Masters. He’s also the proud owner of an impressive Masters statistic: the first (and, to date, only) player to card four rounds in the 60s. He pulled off the feat in 2020, a year when Dustin Johnson happened to blow away the field by five strokes.
All that combined makes him one of the favorites this week, Mud Flaps or no. So when he recovered from a first-hole double-bogey to dip as low as six-under, four clear of the field, he was rolling as well as he ever had at Augusta. Even closing with another double-bogey didn’t dent his optimism. Much.
“The less you guys bring it up, the less, the quicker I'll forget about it,” he smiled. “No, I'm done with it. I think the stuff in between was really nice, and yeah, just take the positives out of it.”
Barring an uncharacteristic catastrophe Friday, Smith will be around for the weekend, and he’ll probably be teeing off in one of the last few groups. He won’t be tough to pick out.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter at @jaybusbee or contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com.
