If we could travel back to the start of 2016 and ask Jordan Smith what his hopes for the future would be, having just earned a Challenge Tour card by winning the EuroPro Tour, the following list would have sat somewhere between ambitious and the stuff of pure fantasy:
- Win on the Challenge Tour
- Earn a European Tour card
- Top the Challenge Tour Rankings
- Go head-to-head with Rory McIlroy in the final group on a tournament Sunday
- Enter the top 100 in the Official World Golf Ranking
- Win on the European Tour
- Play in a Major Championship
- Finish in the top ten on Major debut
Two seasons later and all of these boxes, among many others, have already been ticked as the Englishman’s impressive rise through golf’s ranks has continued to catch the eye.
His short but sweet Challenge Tour career was noteworthy enough. He won the second event of the 2016 season in Egypt and secured seven further top tens, including a second victory in Ras Al Khaimah, as he comfortably topped the Road to Oman Rankings.
However, few Challenge Tour graduates take to European Tour life as seamlessly as the 25 year old.
His first start of 2017 came at the BMW SA Open hosted by City of Ekurhuleni and propelled Smith into the realm of fantasy golf.
Three rounds under 70 put Smith in the final group for the fourth round alongside tournament leader Graeme Storm – himself a former Challenge Tour graduate – and the then-World Number Two McIlroy.
Such company could be daunting for many golfers at the start of their European Tour careers but Smith refused to be overawed by the four-time Major Champion.
Four birdies and an eagle before the turn closed the gap before another eagle on the 15th brought him within one shot of McIlroy, who had by now taken the lead, before both men bogeyed the penultimate hole.
Smith then could not find a closing birdie to earn himself a spot in the play-off, ultimately won by Storm, but his round of 68 matched McIlroy on the day and offered early evidence that this rookie was made of impressively stern stuff.
Two weeks later, Smith was at it again, this time at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters, where a tie for sixth took him inside the top 100 in the world for the first time in his career.
It has become increasingly clear that this is where Smith belongs. In 21 events from January to September, he missed only one cut, and even that was by just one shot.
Allied with this consistency was the capacity to start contending for titles. South Africa had offered a taste of things to come but that breakthrough would ultimately arrive in Germany later in the summer.
The Porsche European Open is one of the longest-standing and most prestigious events on the European Tour schedule, with past winners including Major Champions (Greg Norman, Retief Goosen, Nick Faldo and Ian Woosnam among them) as well as golfing legends such as Colin Montgomerie and Lee Westwood.
To that list, we can now add Jordan Smith. Leading by two shots going into the final round, the rookie had been overtaken by defending champion Alexander Levy by the time they reached the turn.
As in South Africa, Smith refused to succumb. Levy still led by one as they played the final hole before Smith dramatically holed a nerveless ten foot putt for birdie to take the contest to a play-off.
After Levy missed a short birdie putt on the first extra hole, it was Smith’s birdie at the second time of asking that sealed the biggest title of his young career to date and rubber stamped his arrival as one of the game’s most exciting new talents.
“It's all a bit surreal,” he said. “Obviously the Challenge Tour last year and the EuroPro the year before that. It's been fun.
“I had a really good start to the year and the first aim was just to secure my Tour card, which I managed to do. And then the second goal was to win an event, which I've managed to do.”
As if the year could not get any better, Smith’s next tournament, by virtue of his lofty world ranking, was a Major debut at the US PGA Championship, and the form and confidence of a European Tour winner was clear for all to see at Quail Hollow.
Only three players – winner Justin Thomas, runner-up Patrick Reed and Graham DeLaet, who shared seventh place – shot better than Smith’s four under par weekend as he climbed 34 places, ultimately finishing in a tie for ninth.
As 2017 draws to an end, Smith will be writing a new list of ever more ambitious goals, having earned more than €1,250,000 in his first European Tour season and finished 24th in the Race to Dubai.
Top 50 in the world? Top 20 even? Certainly more European Tour titles and Major appearances. The possibility of forming part of Thomas Bjørn’s Ryder Cup team in Paris in September?
If Jordan Smith has taught us anything over the past two years, it is that no dream is too big, that impossible is nothing. Do not be surprised by his continued rise in 2018.
