British Open champion Cameron Smith fishing in the Jacksonville Kingfish event

5 days earlier, Cameron Smith walked the greens of St. Andrews because the British Open Champion golfer of the 12 months

On Friday, he cruised Florida’s coastal waters among the many Sunshine State’s outside fanatics and nearly as soon as once more got here out on prime.

The mixed efforts of Smith, Billy Horschel and a championship golf staff led the pack early, although not late, in Friday’s Larger Jacksonville Kingfish Match at Jim King Park in Sisters Creek.

As an alternative, Joseph Shugart’s crew aboard the St. Augustine-based One Time caught a 49.77-pound winner for the largest catch of the day, whereas the two-fish added championship, a class the staff at Smith and Horschel led for greater than an hour in the course of the afternoon. – lastly went to Tommy Rady and the staff at Salt Life Meals Shack.

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Lower than every week after his golden closing spherical 64 at St. Andrews, Jacksonville resident Smith returned to First Coast, teaming with seven-time PGA Tour winner Horschel and a squad filled with golf aces. to get sixth place. in combination competitors.

Already a champion this week on grass, Smith almost claimed victory in surf. The staff, with Brandon Arthurs listed as event captain, weighed in a pair of 29-pounders shortly after 3:00 pm to take the early lead at 59.27 kilos.

The training curve proved clean for Horschel, who had landed a weight of 29.82 kilos by mid-morning.

“Cam catches much more than I do, the fellows catch much more than I do, however yeah, that is by far my greatest kingfish as a result of I’ve by no means caught one,” mentioned Horschel, whose week on the Previous Course was not unhealthy in any respect. . He tied for twenty first at 5 underneath par, incomes $120,286 in prize cash.

Horschel mentioned Terry Kelly, the daddy of Matt Kelly, caddy for PGA Tour golfer Marc Leishman of Australia, caught the second kingfish of Smith’s crew at 29.45 kilos.

Whereas Friday’s sixth-place prize pool of $1,500 is a far cry from the $2.5 million Smith earned for his win at St. Andrews, the expertise left distinctive recollections for Horschel.

“This is superb,” he mentioned. “That is one thing I do not do on a regular basis, so I believe all of us have enjoyable.”

For a time, golfers’ catches appeared like championship materials. Smith’s crew led the combination positions till Hilliard’s Lyle Rose, aboard Cherokee Rose, superior with a pair of fish price a mixed 65.28 kilos round 4:30 p.m. Rady and the Salt Life Meals Shack crew they captured the $12,000 combination prize at £39.80 and £31.83 for a formidable combination of £71.63.

“The chunk was fairly good all day,” Rady mentioned.

Shugart wrapped up the cliffhanger rapidly on the huge pictures championship.

Shugart’s catch, the third to be weighed, proved untouchable, a big almost 50-pound kingfish that held comfortably all day. No subsequent fish surpassed the 40-pound mark.

The crew lastly retrieved the king after a battle of about 15 to twenty minutes shortly after 10 a.m. estimated at $160,000—appeared inside simple attain.

“We fish in all places, we journey in all places, the Keys, North Carolina, Biloxi,” mentioned David Nelson, a crew member who weighed the catch. “We have caught loads of huge fish and we knew we had been there, we had been contenders.”

Closest to Shugart’s staff was the primary fish of the day, delivered to shore by Mike Strickland’s staff simply after the weigh-in tent opened at 3 p.m. he completed second underneath the single-day fishing format.

For some time, Runyon mentioned, the crew had no thought the scale of the fish throughout a grueling 30-minute morning brawl.

“We could not see him for 25 minutes, after which he came visiting and gave us a fowl’s-eye view of him and we had been capable of see him,” Runyon mentioned. “So, yeah, we obtained actually excited once we noticed it.”

Kaylee Canady of Jacksonville captured the highest prize within the Girl Angler division with a catch of 27.49 kilos.

This 12 months’s total event was the primary in almost a decade to be held on a single day, a schedule revamped earlier within the 12 months as a result of international surge in fuel costs, now displaying indicators of abating.

In whole, event officers reported 343 entries for the single-day competitors.

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