PONTE VEDRA, Fla. — The high school junior was bold enough to approach six-time PGA Tour winner Cameron Smith in the TPC Sawgrass clubhouse last March during the week of The Players Championship.
“Hi,” the young man said, sticking his hand out. “I’m Cam Smith.”
“Cool,” the eventual winner of the Players Championship said.
“Then I just walked away,” Camden Smith said.
But he wants the world to know something.
“I had the mullet before he did,” said the Ponte Vedra High School senior who shot 68 on Saturday to work his way into contention in the second round of the American Junior Golf Association Junior Players Championship, at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.
He also has a flat-brimmed Titleist hat and the big smile. Time will tell if Camden Smith develops the game that Cameron Smith possesses but the signs are pointing in the right direction.
Smith, a native of Louisville, Kentucky, whose family moved from Windermere near Orlando to Ponte Vedra Beach earlier this year, birdied his first two holes on each side, then weathered a rough stretch late to finish at 6-under-par 138 and in a tie for fifth in the 16th edition of the First Coast’s Labor Day weekend golf tradition.
Jackson Koivun of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, fifth on the AJGA Rolex Rankings and an Auburn commit, had a bogey-free 64, including a back-nine 31, and is tied for the lead with Jeffrey Guan of Australia (69) at 8-under 136.
Koivun eagled No. 11 and birdied Nos. 16 and 17 to finish one shot shy of the Junior Players 18-hole record of 63, recorded by Logan McAllister in 2017.
“I feel like I played a lot smarter than yesterday ,” Koivun said. “I gave myself really good opportunities to score and make a few birdies and even an eagle as well. I knew I had it in me after making six birdies yesterday and I kept the mistakes to a minimum today and it paid off.”
Carson Kim of Yorba Linda, California, had a bogey-free 68. Ethan Fang of Plano, Texas, birdied No. 18 to finish with the low round of the day at 66 to tie for second at 7-under.
Smith is tied with Jay Leng, Jr., of San Diego (71).
Camden Smith has already reached one goal: Making Ponte Vedra High’s lineup
Smith, who has committed to Mississippi State, has already accomplished one difficult feat in golf: he cracked the starting lineup for the seven-time defending champion Ponte Vedra High Sharks and shot a combined 4-under in 54 holes in his first two tournaments.
He’s got most…
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