That face-to-face meeting between one of the all-time great rugby league footballers Cameron Smith and the potentially brilliant golfer Cameron Smith has yet to surface, but both will have plenty to talk about.
Footballer Smith’s second sport is golf where he plays off 15 – that’s when he gets the chance in his busy schedule as captain of every team he plays in during the season, while golfer Smith is a rugby league tragic, closely following his team the Broncos.
So far it’s only been the odd social media connection, but they are both very supportive of each other.
For example, footballer Smith wished his golfing mate all the best as he was about to tee off in the US Open two years ago – he finished in a tie for fourth.
Golfer Smith wished his namesake well before last season’s NRL comp, so long as he didn’t beat his favourite team.
Both were born in Brisbane a decade apart, footballer Smith at 33 is nearing the end of his stellar career, while 23-year-old golfer Smith has around 35 years to go playing professionally on the USPGA and Champions tours.
But golfer Smith has the wood on his namesake when it comes to bank accounts.
Last week he won his first USPGA tournament in a playoff and banked $1.35 million for 76 holes over four and a bit days.
For footballer Smith to match that he would have to play 30-plus games in a season, and endure 80 minutes per game of physical battering at club, state, and international level.
But it would be fair to say if golfer Smith can be half as successful as the footballer, he would not only earn many millions more cold hard, but not have to cop a physical battering playing the world’s best courses.
Footballer Smith is an Immortal-in-waiting, has won the Golden Boot as the world’s best player in 2007, and the Dally M Medal in 2006.
He’s been voted the Dally M rep player of the year in 2007, 2011, 2013, and 2014, the Dally M hooker of the year in 2006, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014, and the Dally M captain of the year in 2011, and 2013.
He’s tops those achievements with the Wally Lewis Medal as the Origin player of the year in 2007, 2011, 2013, and 2016.
He’s already the most capped Origin player with 38, he’s just set the record for the most goals in NRL history with 943, and he will soon hold the record for the most NRL appearances with 344, chasing Darren Lockyer’s 355.
Don’t be at all surprised if Smith sets the all-time points scoring record, currently at 2049 chasing Hazem El Masri’s 2418, tomorrow night he plays his 50th Test with only Lockyer’s 59 ahead of him. With five Origin man of the match awards, he;s second only to Wally Lewis’ eight.
So golfer Smith has a mountain to climb, but he’s chock-full of potential, with plenty of time on his side.
He was an Australian amateur rep at the Eisenhower Cup in 2012, and Australian Amateur champion in 2013, before tuining pro.
So far he’s finished in that tie for fourth at the 2015 US Open, in a tie for 55th at the 2016 Masters, and a tie for 25th at the PGA in his only three major starts.
Now he’s a PGA winner, he’s joined Adam Scott and Jason Day as the only Australians in the last 30 years to win a PGA title before they turned 24.
But majors are his dream to join nine other Aussies.
Peter Thomson is the youngest, winning the first of his five British Opens at 25.
Day was 27 he he won the 2015 PGA, while the other seven were all in their 30s.
Ian Baker-Finch was 30, Greg Norman 31, Jim Ferrier and Adam Scott were 32, David Graham and Wayne Grady 33, while Kel Nagle was 35 when he won the Centenary Open in 1960.
So the targets are there for the taking.
I’ve a pretty fair idea of how Cameron Smith will feel when he meets Cameron Smith.
About 60 years ago my father Broughton rang me to have lunch at Roseville.
Sitting at the table was a dapper little bloke with a small moustache, as Dad said David Lord meet David Lord.
I was gobsmacked, and the lunch was a bit of a blur.
My namesake was a track sprinter his his school days at the Scots College at Bellevue Hill, and he held the GPS 100 yards under 14 track record at 10.4 for 30 years, and that was really quick for a 13-year-old.
As big a blur as the lunch was, it was memorable.
No doubt the first time Cameron Smith meets Cameron Smith over lunch will be memorable as well.
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