Just after 10am on Tuesday at Murray Downs Golf and Country Club along the Murray River, Cameron Smith threw four balls up in the air on the 10th tee. The way they fell had Smith teaming up with young Australian Jack Buchanan, while Smith’s Ripper GC teammate Lucas Herbert was paired with talented Queenslander Elvis Smylie to round out the four-ball.

Playing a practice round with a major champion, in Smith, and Herbert, a winner on both the DP World and PGA tours, was a rare honour not lost on Smylie. “It’s awesome to compete against him in these Aussie events and also today, to be able to pick his brains about practice and particularly putting is pretty special,” Smylie said afterwards.

Both Buchanan – twice a winner on the Australasian tour already this summer – and Smylie, who claimed the WA Open recently – gained invaluable experience over a nine-hole practice round at Murray Downs. Smith and Buchanan clipped Herbert and Smylie, 1 up.

In the past, on the PGA and DP World tours, Smith and Herbert historically would not have had time to play tournaments in Australia outside of the two big championships, the Australian PGA and Open. But now they’re on LIV Golf, where they form half of the all-Australian Ripper GC team, the 2024 season-long champions, they have an off season that runs from early October to February. That opens the calendar for events like the Ford NSW Open.

It’s why the 2022 Open champion at St Andrews, Smith, played the Queensland PGA two weeks ago while fans walked beside him in the fairways at Nudgee Golf Club. They watched him finish T-3 after a decent run at victory. This week, Smith and Herbert are in action at the Ford NSW Open at the Murray Downs course at Swan Hill, on the Victorian side of the Murray River. It’s a 3.5-hour drive from Melbourne and close to a nine-hour drive from Sydney but a beautiful and historic place in regional Australia.

First and foremost, the decision to tee up in two state level events allowed Smith to support his beloved PGA Tour of Australasia.

“It’s been awesome,” Smith told Australian Golf Digest on Tuesday. “Nudgee was great; the crowds were awesome. Walking in the fairways [with us] reminded me of my early professional days and amateur days, and I’m sure it’ll be the same out here at the NSW Open.

“The last couple of years I’ve played the big two, I guess you’d call them, and I wanted to play more. I had a lot of stuff going on at the end of last year. I’ve always wanted to play [more in Australia], but just really didn’t have the time. Whereas now I feel like I’ve got a little bit more time, particularly finishing earlier. I feel like it’s … not our duty to do it, but I feel like it’s just a nice thing to do so why not do it?”

An added benefit to playing the two state events is they boost Smith’s tournament reps ahead of the Australia PGA Championship in Brisbane next week (November 21-24), and the Australian Open in Melbourne the following week (November 28-December 1).

Smith is determined to show up in better shape at the Australian PGA at Royal Queensland than last year. In 2023, he was the defending PGA champion but shot 78 on day two and missed the cut by a long way. He admitted competitive rust and a lack of reps contributed to that.

After the PGA, Smith is hungry to fill a hole in his resume currently occupied by the Australian Open. It will be back on the Melbourne Sandbelt from November 28 to December 1 at co-hosts Kingston Heath and Victoria Golf Club. Smith has three Australian PGA titles (2017, 2018, 2022) but has never lifted the Stonehaven Cup. He and countryman Ash Hall lost in a playoff to superstar Jordan Spieth at the 2016 Australian Open at Royal Sydney.

“I think the biggest [reason for playing the Queensland PGA and NSW Open] is the reps after having some time off,” Smith said. “You can hit balls on the on the range endlessly but I think being competitive and being in a competitive environment is also really important. For me, [the goal] is trying to get that Aussie Open; something I haven’t been able to do yet.”

This year, Golf NSW secured Ford as the naming-rights sponsor of its men’s and women’s NSW Opens, along with its Jack Newton Junior Golf (JNJG) Masters Series. The men’s NSW Open has an increased prize fund of $800,000 and the field is star-studded with Aussie names such as Smith, Herbert and 2006 US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy. Among the other headliners are all four winners from Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia this year, Phoenix Campbell, Buchanan, Smylie and Will Bruyeres.

The NSW Open was last played in March 2023, after not featuring last season on tour due to a change in scheduling. DP World Tour finalist, David Micheluzzi, was the most recent winner of the Kel Nagle Cup, winning it on his way to securing the 2023 Australian Order of Merit.