THE GAME

Record-setting Smith victorious in Hawaii

- Nick Bonfield and David Taylor

Congratulations on winning the Tournament of Champions and breaking the 72-hole PGA Tour scoring record. How was it?

It was intense. Jonny [Rahm] and I played well the whole day. We had Matty [Jones] in the group in front lighting it up as well. It was an unreal round and something I’ll never forget, for sure.

The victory took you into the world’s top ten for the first time, too. How satisfying is that?

Yeah, it’s really cool. It took me a while to get into the top 20 and one of my goals this year was to get into the top ten. It’s nice that’s done and dusted and hopefully I can keep cruising up those world rankings. It’s good to tick that off so early in the year. I guess I’ll have to reassess a few other goals now too.

Is it still your ultimate goal to reach World No.1?

Yeah, I think so. There’s obviously a long way to go to get there. There are still a few things in my game that I would like to make better, but for sure I definitely want to get there. How long it’s going to take, I’m not sure. I feel like I need to keep improving and not worry about the other stuff; just keep trying to make myself a better golfer.

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