Smyth eager for more LIV Golf success at Andalucia

SOTOGRANDE, Spain – Travis Smyth was in Sydney when his phone rang. It was Sunday, he was hungover, and the last thing on his mind was traveling to Busan.

"I thought I had three weeks off and I've been traveling a lot, playing tons," Smyth said. "I was just back home having some drinks with some friends. I was only going to do it Friday night, ended up doing it again Saturday night. So, Sunday I was feeling pretty average."

The call that came through that morning would change everything. With Paul Casey forced to withdraw from the Crushers GC lineup with a wrist injury, Smyth was asked to be a reserve. He said yes immediately, couldn't get a flight out until Tuesday, and by Wednesday afternoon was told he was on the team and playing. Four days later, he walked off Asiad Country Club having finished T8 on the individual leaderboard and helped deliver the Crushers GC their second consecutive team title in Korea.

"It's one of the most life-changing weeks that I've had," he said.

What made the performance all the more remarkable was the circumstances surrounding it. Smyth arrived in Busan having played just nine holes of practice — in the rain, in conditions that bore no resemblance to what the week would actually bring. His first round was rocky. But he steadied himself, and by the time the Crushers found themselves in genuine contention, something shifted.

"Once we got in contention it was like, 'I don't want to be the reason that the Crushers don't get on this podium or lift a trophy,'" he said. "So I felt super nervous. But yeah, it just made the whole week even more special. Made me more proud of the way that I played and the way that I carried myself, feeling those nerves that were more than usual and continuing to play well. It was such a good, rewarding feeling."

That sense of collective responsibility and the weight of not wanting to let teammates down is something Smyth has long identified as one of LIV Golf's most compelling qualities, and something he felt last week for the first time while actually in contention.

"I probably cared more about that than my actual individual position," he admitted.

Charles Howell III spoke to a similar feeling in the post-round press conference, noting that even a player of his experience still feels the nerves of letting his team down. For Smyth — the last-minute call-up, the guy who had been partying in Sydney 72 hours earlier — those nerves ran even deeper. And he channeled them into something special.

Smyth has won twice in 2026, primarily on the Asian Tour, and has been building toward this kind of performance for some time. One of the most notable developments in his game has been his putting. He gained four strokes on the greens in Korea alone. Smyth is clear that the improvement has nothing to do with mechanics.

"It's not anything technical that I've changed. It's all just my mental approach to it," he said. "Being more decisive and committing to lines. It's more of a little mental switch that's clicked. Before I would just get over putts and that little voice in your head saying 'Don't go left,' 'Am I aiming high enough,' 'Don't leave it short' — all these don'ts. That story would always override and it really locked me up from being a good putter."

Now, the internal monologue has changed. "I'm just sending this thing down there," he said. "It's amazing how many good putts I've been able to hole under pressure situations, feeling nervous."

Beyond the putting, there is something broader happening with Smyth's game that is difficult to quantify but impossible to ignore. He described it simply as playing with more freedom than at any point in his career, a freedom that seems to deepen under pressure rather than evaporate.

"Has there been moments where I feel like I've hit driver better or hit my irons better or chipped and putted better? Yeah, there has been," he said. "But as a whole, I feel like I'm playing probably with more freedom than I ever have."

He will need all of it this week at Valderrama, a course he is seeing for the first time and which made an immediate impression.

"It's incredible. It's such a unique course. It's so tight," he said. "Some of these par 3s, you could find yourself in the weirdest situations here where you miss a green by like three or four meters and it kicks down a hill and then you're chipping up to a green with trees and branches everywhere. You're gonna have to grind for some bogeys out here."

For a player who described his Korea preparation as "the polar opposite" of everything he normally does, the prospect of navigating one of the most demanding venues in professional golf with a full week of preparation feels almost luxurious.

But don't mistake comfort for complacency. Smyth is fully aware of what is at stake, not just this week, but in the broader context of what a sustained run of form on LIV Golf could mean for his career.

"I still feel like I have to go out and prove something to myself as well as the whole league," he said. "As long as Paul's injured or whatever, I want the Crushers to feel lucky that I came into the equation. I don't want to be just the fill-in guy that comes last out of the four players all the time. I want to prove myself. I want to be on this league full-time."

That desire is what makes Smyth's story one of the most compelling on LIV Golf right now. He has had a glimpse of what LIV Golf looks like from the inside, competing alongside the best players in the world at some of the most spectacular venues on the planet, and he wants more.

"I've felt this little glimpse of what it's like and yeah, it's addictive," he said.

The Crushers won Korea. Smyth was a significant reason why. This week at Valderrama, he gets another chance to make the case that LIV Golf is where he belongs permanently.