Ian Baker-Finch has always said the best new club in your golf bag after winning a major is the ability to say “no.”

It is advice that one British Open champion might not yet have passed on to another but it is a very shrewd pointer for hot shot Cameron Smith.

Playing great golf is no longer the only challenge for the popular Smith, who is wowing crowds at the Fortinet Australian PGA at Royal Queensland this week.
On equal footing is actually being able to clear his mind and week’s schedule to only concentrate on hitting the ball with the purity and fresh feel we have come to expect.

This week’s return to his home town of Brisbane for the first time in three years has been all about saying “yes, yes, yes” and a polite “no.”
He has done so brilliantly. He appeared in person to collect the worthy individual gong as Greg Norman Medallist for Australia’s golfer of the year.
Some would have curiously wondered why he wasn’t there in person on Thursday night at another glittering gala in Brisbane to collect The Courier-Mail Channel Seven Queensland Sport Star of the Year award.

Such a night mid-tournament when you already have tiredness in your bones just doesn’t convert to shooting low on course. That’s the only place he has to be judged.

There was another polite “no” to do a morning interview on Friday before his 11am tee off in the second round at RQ.
Both are signs that Smith and his team already know the IBF lesson is a good one.

After Baker-Finch won the 1991 British Open at Royal Birkdale, he confessed to saying “yes” too often. He over-committed by playing extra tournaments that pushed his schedule out of shape. He was tugged this way and that with corporate calls on his time. He gave his time to everyone in the room. And never won abroad again. After his 1991 high, he won just two more events on the Australasian Tour.

You can still be an obliging, people’s champ and say “no” at times.
One punter in the rollicking crowd that gathered for Smith’s 6am tee off at the PGA on Thursday asked him for an autograph before he’d even teed off.
“See me after, mate” was Smith’s simple and polite sidestep.

This week, Smith has been asked to pose in more selfies than the Insta-not-very-famous types who make a career posting photos of themselves doing not very much. He’s signed caps for countless kids. He posed for a photo with Queensland’s Special Olympic team post-round on Thursday. He’s found time for just about everything to promote the tournament which is being staged at the 2032 Brisbane Olympics golf course.

It may be a big call but there hasn’t been this buzz around a tournament at Royal Queensland since Greg Norman was playing the Queensland Open in the 1980s. Of course, the “Shark” delivered too. He won the 1983 Queensland Open on his home course by sinking a monster putt on the last to win.

Tournament organisers did their numbers on Friday morning. By 6.39am on day two of four, more people had ticked through the gates at RQ than they did for the entire 2013 event at RACV Royal Pines on the Gold Coast.

The significance? That was the year Adam Scott captivated local fans by winning the PGA on his return from his historic victory at the Masters at Augusta.
Smith is moving the dial that much as a drawcard. Maybe, the mullet has something to do with it.

There is still something endearingly home spun about “Team Smith.” His diminutive grandma Carol was behind the T-shirts that appeared on course on Thursday. Each was bedecked on the back with a photo of a wild, flowing Cam mullet. On the front was printed “Team Smith: Lifetime Member.”

There was a beautiful moment out on the 15th early on Thursday morning when a spectator asked what the Team Smith stuff was about.
“He’s my grandson. He’ll probably think it’s too much hype but it’s just for fun,” his proud grandma said.

Smith had a ragged opening nine holes on Thursday. He kicked into gear with four back nine birdies with that hot putter of his. A gallery, which built to 2500-plus men, women and excited teens, revelled in it.

Scott has never got enough credit for carrying the Australian summer of golf on his shoulders over the past decade. He’s almost always returned to these shores to play while Jason Day, another former world No.1, has done so rarely.

Dealing with the extra burden of all eyes being on you to perform is something Scott has handled with aplomb. Smith is now learning to deal with it.
Scott has been there: “I haven’t got too many worries about Cam. He should enjoy it all. Coming home to play that 2013 summer in Australia after the Masters (win) was one of the great memories of my career.”

I’ll never forget one moment of that green jacket tour. Scott was wearing the iconic symbol of an Augusta champion when in the queue at a lavish Dinner With The Stars buffet at Royal Pines. Seasoned pro Peter O’Malley was behind him in the queue and reached out to touch the green material like a starry-eyed junior. He just couldn’t miss the chance.

The green jacket has a magnetism all of its own just like the Claret Jug that Smith has brought to town. He’s swung the jug by Wantima Country Club and RQ to show it off to family, friends and club members. More selfies.

“I had a few beers with the guys at Wantima. Everyone enjoyed their photos and having a sip out of the jug. It was pretty neat for a little club like that on the northside to have that jug in the clubhouse, something those people will never forget,” Smith said.

Smith’s coach Grant Field would love his star charge to just concentrate on hitting the best seven irons, drivers and chip shots he can. He is realistic enough to know that it will never be just about that anymore after the epic deeds of St Andrews at the Open in July.

An essential fire dimmed within the now-retired Ash Barty when she won Wimbledon and achieved her life’s dream. Field knows the drive within the 29-year-old Smith, who still sits at No.3 in the world even after his move to LIV Golf. “There is still a massive fire to do big things…and, yes, I do think his best is ahead” Field said.
One of those steps may be to be in contention to win his third Australian PGA deep into Sunday’s final round because of the power in saying “no.”

Jim Tucker has specialised in sport, the wider impacts and features for most of his 40 years writing in the media. As a golf writer, he has been tracking the Cameron Smith career since he was Australian Junior Champion at 17.