British Open champ Cameron Smith fishes in Jacksonville kingfish event

Five days earlier, Cameron Smith was walking the greens of St. Andrews as the British Open’s Champion Golfer of the Year.

On Friday, he motored across the coastal waters of Florida among the outdoors enthusiasts of the Sunshine State — and, very nearly, on top once more.

The combined efforts of Smith, Billy Horschel and a championship golf crew led the pack early, though not at the end, in Friday’s Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament at Jim King Park at Sisters Creek.

Instead, Joseph Shugart’s crew aboard the St. Augustine-based One Time caught a 49.77-pound winner for the day’s biggest catch, while the two-fish aggregate championship — a category that Smith and Horschel’s team led for more than an hour during the afternoon — ultimately went to Tommy Rady and the Salt Life Food Shack crew.

Less than a week removed from his golden final-round 64 at St. Andrews, Jacksonville resident Smith was back on the First Coast, teaming with seven-time PGA Tour winner Horschel and a crew filled with aces of the golf course to earn sixth place in the aggregate competition.

Already a champion this week on the turf, Smith nearly added victory in the surf. The crew, with Brandon Arthurs registered as tournament captain, weighed in a pair of 29-pounders shortly after 3 p.m. to assume the early lead at 59.27 pounds.

The learning curve proved smooth for Horschel, who had landed a 29.82-pounder in the mid-morning.

“Cam fishes a lot more than I do, the boys fish a lot more than I do, but, yeah, this is by far my biggest kingfish because I’ve never caught one,” said Horschel, whose own week at the Old Course was none too shabby. He tied for 21st at 5 under, reeling in $120,286 in prize money.

Horschel said that Terry Kelly — the father of Matt Kelly, caddie for PGA Tour golfer Marc Leishman of Australia — caught the Smith crew’s second kingfish at 29.45 pounds.

While Friday’s sixth-place aggregate prize of $1,500 is a far cry from the $2.5 million that Smith earned for his triumph at St. Andrews, the experience left one-of-a-kind memories for Horschel.

“This is pretty cool,” he said. “This is something I don’t do all the time, so I think we all enjoyed ourselves.”

For a while, the golfers’ catches looked like possible championship material. The Smith crew led the aggregate standings until Lyle Rose of Hilliard, aboard Cherokee Rose, pushed ahead with a pair of fish worth a combined 65.28 pounds around 4:30 p.m….