Cameron Smith has become one of the best players in the world while being one of the most recognizable players on the PGA Tour, largely thanks to the mullet he has been sporting while playing golf.
A mullet is a pretty distinctive look anywhere, much less on a golf course among clean-cut pro golfers. So why does Cameron Smith wear a mullet for his haircut?
Why Cam Smith has a mullet at the 2022 The Players Championship
Cam Smith started wearing a mullet back in 2021, just in time for the year-delayed 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Smith was one of the Australian players who represented his country in the men's golf competition. He had "AUS," the abbreivation for Australia in the Olympics, shaved into the side of his mullet so he look extra enthusiastic about being in the Games.
“I mean, it's the Olympics. It doesn't happen too often,” Smith said ahead of the Olympics. “I thought I would give Australia a shoutout on the side of the melon. I thought about it for a few weeks beforehand and then I just said, 'Stuff it, I'm going to do it,' and I think it's been received pretty good.”
However, Smith had been wearing a mullet for longer than the Olympics. In fact, when he teamed up with fellow Aussie Marc Leishman to win the 2021 Zurich Classic of New Orleans, Leishman showed up on the first tee with a blonde wig to make light of Smith's mullet. As a duo, Smith and Leishman’s walk-up song for the first tee each day was “The Mullet Song” by Jay Powell.
In fact, Smith started 2021 with a mullet. He explained why he did that when he defended his title at the Sony Open in Hawaii in January.
"It just come around, I saw a few of the rugby league boys at home doing it," Smith said.
"It was a great time to do it during quarantine, just something fun. Make people have a laugh about it. I've just kind of kept it going. I've almost turned it into my good luck charm. It not bad. I think it needs a little bit of a trim at the front. I'd really like to go full business at the front and party at the back. But maybe within the next couple months, it might change up a little bit."
Smith had promised to his girlfriend, Jordan Ontiveros, that he would get rid of the mullet if he won on the PGA Tour with it. But he hasn't yet, despite the two wins since.
