Tuesday 27 November 2018 12:16, UK
Cameron Smith has set his sights on joining the world’s top players ahead of his Australian PGA Championship title defence on home soil.
Smith has registered eight worldwide top-10s in 2018 and reached the PGA Tour's season-ending Tour Championship for the first time, as well as finishing tied-second as part of Team Australia at the World Cup of Golf last week.
The world No 33 defeated Jordan Zunic in a play-off to win this event at RACV Royal Pines in 2017, with Smith confident of continuing his run of form and pushing up the world rankings.
"My next goal for myself is to make myself a top 20 player in the world," Smith told the media on Tuesday. "I've made myself a top 50 player in the world, which was the goal for the last couple years and finally got that done earlier this year.
"Obviously, getting that far up is a really big step and something that I want to do, but definitely not a time frame thing. I'm just trying to make myself better every day."
The 25-year-old will play alongside compatriot Curtis Luck and Andrew "Beef" Johnston for the first two rounds, with World Cup playing partner Marc Leishman also in the field and featuring with Adrian Otaegui and Ryan Fox.
"I think last week was really important just playing with Marc [Leishman] and having someone there that it affects as well," Smith added. "I think maybe the last couple months or so I've been playing really good golf, but I've probably been on the aggressive side maybe a little bit too much. I'll definitely take a lot from last week."
Former US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy plays on home soil after taking up affiliate membership on the European Tour for the new season, having missed the cut in 14 of his 16 starts on the PGA Tour in 2018.
Watch the Australian PGA Championship throughout the week on Sky Sports. Daily highlights begin on Thursday from 1.30pm on Sky Sports Golf.
