‘Snuck up on us’: Inside rise of next Smith who ambushed big guns… and the world is next

For many in Australian golf, it was a matter of when, not if, Elvis Smylie would make his mark on the professional game.

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After being named for the king of rock and roll and rubbing shoulders with sporting royalty all his life, the prodigiously talented 23-year-old was seemingly always destined for big things.

Then the son of former Australian professional tennis players Liz and Peter Smylie’s breakthrough came at last week’s Australian PGA Championship.

The left hander grew up with golf mentors like 1991 British Open champion Ian Baker-Finch and 1990 US PGA champion Wayne Grady, and he showed the composure of an experienced campaigner to finish two shots clear of Cameron Smith and lift the trophy.

Sport’s elite have always been close to Smylie. He revealed on Tuesday, when speaking ahead of the Australian Open, that eight-time tennis grand slam champion Ivan Lendl messaged him his congratulations after tuning in from America.

“I’m quite a calm composed individual and I feel like as my career has gone on, I’ve hung around with people a lot older than myself so I’ve always learned how to mature quite quickly and beyond my years,” Smylie said.

“So that’s something that’s put me in good stead as well because when you’re in moments where you’re coming down the stretch, it was a Sunday afternoon and you’ve got the likes of Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman breathing down your back as well as other top players that were playing last week, those kind of composed moments are really important to remember.”

Smylie’s pedigree coupled with his sublime skills quickly made him touted as a future star as word spread of his impressive performances in junior tournaments.

Australia’s most recent male major champion, Smith, stood up and took notice that the Gold Coast resident had a big future by making him one of his scholarship recipients in 2019.

As part of the scholarship, Smith gave Smylie and fellow Queenslander Tyler Duncan an all expenses paid trip to Florida to stay with him for a week, practice together and play rounds together – as he does for two young Australian golfers every year.

So last weekend’s duel between Smylie and Smith in the final group, along with Marc Leishman, was a significant moment.

Smylie always looked the likely victor when he birdied the first two holes of the final round, but Smith was looming throughout, and although he walked away disappointed not to snare a fourth Australian PGA crown, he was mightily impressed by his mentee.

“It’s bittersweet. It’s really cool to see. I didn’t think it would happen this quickly,” Smith said with a laugh about being beaten by his scholarship recipient.

“He’s on a really good track. Obviously, it’s a long way to come from being a junior golfer to being a professional. He just keeps taking the right steps.

“Even that week (in 2019) you could tell he was a really hard worker, which is a really good trait to have. He should enjoy the win but keep working really hard, because he’s still got a long way to go.”

Smylie, of course, has fond memories of that week five years ago.

Despite spending so much time with elite athletes, it was a different experience to be with a current player who was close to hitting the peak of their powers.

“Spending a week with Cam and seeing what life was like playing on the biggest stage in golf and just seeing what life was like going about his business on a day-to-day basis. It’s something that is invaluable and that kind of experience was great to see firsthand because not many people get that opportunity,” Smylie said.

“So, I played a practice round with him at the New South Wales Open with him and Lucas Herbert and that was the last time that I’d played with Cam before that 2019 trip.

“So, just seeing how far I’ve come and just comparing my game to kids, it was great to be able to just talk to him about a couple of things that I’m working on with my putting, a couple of the drills that he’s been doing with some of the other guys on leave and it’s really put me in good stead.”

In some ways, his journey is now just beginning.

Earlier this year, Smylie tried his hand at DP World Tour qualifying school but missed the first stage by one shot.

He came up short the two previous years as well, but now, he has a two-year exemption to the formerly named European Tour.

The Australian PGA Championship and this week’s Australian Open are co-sanctioned between the PGA Tour of Australasia and the DP World Tour, and once you win on tour, you earn the right to play it for 24 months.

The winner of the Order of Merit of the Australasian tour gets a DP World Tour card for the next year, which is what Smylie had his sights set on at the start of the current season.

His chances were looking promising after notching up his maiden professional victory at the WA Open last month, but now he need not bother.

Recent days have become a scramble to organise the change of plans which starts with a trip to South Africa next week to take on the likes of Presidents Cup players Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Corey Conners, Max Homa and Mackenzie Hughes for a share of the US$6 million prize purse.

But first, he has another major opportunity.

The top three finishers at the Australian Open earn a start at the British Open – where Smylie made his major debut this year after he came through qualifying.

It is always a challenge to back up after a big win – as Cameron Smith showed when the national open was played in Melbourne two years ago and made the cut by the skin of his teeth – but Smylie’s colleagues do not think he will have much issue.

Leishman was stunned by what he saw on Sunday.

“It was great playing with Cam and Elvis in the last round and to see Elvis do what he did, it was pretty impressive,” Leishman said.

“So obviously very happy for him in winning, wish it was me, but it’s good to see the young lad do so well and handle the pressure and certainly got a very bright future.

“Elvis played so good, putted so great, which is what you have to do some days to win and obviously very happy for him to get a win.”

Smylie’s emergence is making things harder for the likes of Leishman and Ripper GC teammate Lucas Herbert.

Leishman, maybe only half-jokingly, said that Smith is looking at Smylie and other young Australians to replace him and Matt Jones on Ripper GC as they age, while Herbert is finding them pesky as he chases his biggest win on home soil.

Herbert’s win at the NSW Open earlier this month was his first as a professional in Australia, and he wants a bigger prize this week, but is being seriously challenged by the local upstarts.

“You almost forget how good some of these guys are back in Australia as well. Elvis is a great example last week,” Herbert said.

“A guy who’s predominantly been playing on the Australian Tour and struggling for some invites out there in Europe and just holds off Cam and Leish on Sunday with ease.

“There’s just a bunch of guys like that out here that you just forget play out here and you come back to these events and you think every year ‘oh surely we’ve got to win one of these’, but every year just it sneaks up and you’re like, ‘gee, these guys are still really good’.”

It is not just the older players who are taking note.

Karl Vilips is Australia’s newest PGA Tour player after earning his card on the Korn Ferry Tour in first year as a professional.

The 23-year-old – who went to high school in Florida and college at Stanford University in California – knows Smylie from their junior days together on national teams and in Perth, and is delighted to have another up-and-coming Australian taking on the game’s big names.

“I’m really proud of Elvis and what he’s done the last three weeks in WA and then obviously in Brisbane,” Vilips said.

“I think it just goes to show that he works extremely hard and that pays off. So, he essentially can be quick and he’s a good example of everything that happens in order and I’m just really happy to see him succeeding at the moment.”

Smylie’s chances are strong again this week as he played Kingston Heath and Victoria – the host venues for the Australian Open – regularly during his amateur days.

Min Woo Lee almost pulled off a special double last year when he finished third the week after winning the Australian PGA.

Lee, who plays on the PGA Tour, made himself a hero among local fans in the process.

The pair have also become close in the past year since Smylie joined the Ritchie Smith stable.

Lee, his sister Minjee and Hannah Green – who both headline the women’s field this week – are all coached by Smith who is based in Perth.

Three-quarters of Australia’s Olympic team from this year’s Paris Games are his pupils, and Smylie jumped on board to turn his game around after a couple of stagnant years.

He might now be on the path to Los Angeles in four years’ time, and become Australian golf’s new hero.