Elvis Smylie puts lefty golfers back on the map - PGA of Australia

Winning an Aussie “major” like the BMW Australian PGA Championship as a lefty is almost as rare as planting a flag on the moon.

How is it that Australia’s cricket team can field five left-handed batters in the Perth Test against India yet only today can we say the same number of left-handed golfers have won big Australian tournaments this century?

Once you tick off Greg Chalmers, Nick O’Hern, Nick Cullen, Richard Green and now Smylie, it’s bare.

That’s not downplaying the moments that Adam Bland and a few others have given us during tournaments, but right-handers have ruled.

In the past, equipment was a big issue. Pro shops didn’t even carry left-handed sets at times. Lefty clubs are now far more available.

The great David Graham was a lefty before his head professional at Riversdale Golf Club in Victoria convinced him to play right-handed as a young teen in the early 1960s. Two majors later, it was a very good move.

Smylie writes right-handed but he’s been a pure lefty since he first picked up cut-down golf sticks.

Just maybe, he’s part of a revolution. Matt McCarty was a new left-handed winner on the PGA TOUR only last month following Scotsman Robert MacIntyre wining the Canadian Open and Scottish Open earlier in the year.

Playing left-handed or right wasn’t the differentiating factor for Smylie at RQ. It was his composure, a calmness in hitting the right shots but also a calmness in picking the right one to hit at clutch moments.

He may be just 22 but he’s been tuning his mental game for years with help from the likes of Dr Michael Lloyd. He didn’t arrive on the first tee of the final round fearing a match-up against Cam Smith and Marc Leishman.

He relished it as the stage he’s always been working to be on.

Smylie opened birdie-birdie.

“I didn’t just want to show myself but the other guys I’m here to win the tournament. I wanted to put my foot through the door,” Smylie said.

We’ve all seen young players spooked on big stages when playing with the best.

Greg Norman was 21 when paired with the great Jack Nicklaus in the opening rounds of the 1976 Australian Open at The Australian Golf Club.

Norman shot an opening round 80.

The heat came on Smylie sure enough. Take the driveable par-4 12th, one of RQ’s great holes because it tempts you to go for a Harrison Crowe-style eagle or play more conservatively.

Smylie was in the swale to the left of the green and opted firstly for a 46-degree wedge to bump it over the rise and on.

The ball didn’t get up the rise and came back into the valley. His 3-wood bump-and-run went nearly seven metres by.

He nervelessly sunk the putt for par. He made shorter clutch putts on the 14th and 15th to save pars to hold Smith at bay.

The value of that save on the 12th was rammed home when Smith chipped in for birdie on the par-3 17th to delirious applause at the Dabble Party Hole.

Instead, of a one-stroke lead down the last, Smylie had the comfort of two.

“As soon as I holed that putt on the 12th, I thought, That could be pretty big,” Smylie explained with the Joe Kirkwood Cup in his hands.

Even on the last hole when he pulled his drive and was obstructed by a pine tree, he whipped a low iron shot into the greenside bunker.

He backed himself to make par… and did.

Leishman saluted the poise of Smylie’s bogey-free 4-under-par 67 on the final day.

“Elvis played great. It was a big day for him,” Leishman said.

“His wedge play was good, he putted great with those key putts (for par saves) on 12, 15 and elsewhere.

“He took his medicine when he had to. He just made the right decisions and hit the right shots which is what you have to do to win. Impressive.”

As Smylie hopes himself, this is just the start.

Photo: Dan Peled/PGA of Australia