Smith emotional handing back Claret Jug

Cameron Smith hands the Claret Jug to R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers — Cameron Smith has one last look at the Claret Jug before handing it over to R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers

Dates: Thu 20 – Sun 23 July Venue: Royal Liverpool, Hoylake
Coverage: Live radio and text commentary on BBC Sport website, with video clips each day. Daily highlights programme on BBC Two from 20:00 BST

Cameron Smith was “holding back tears” as he handed the Claret Jug back to the R&A on Monday after arriving at Royal Liverpool for the Open Championship.

The Australian won last year’s Open at St Andrews and is trying to emulate Ireland’s Padraig Harrington, the last to win successive titles in 2006-07.

“I didn’t think I’d ever have to give it back, it was a sad moment, crept up on me a little bit,” he told BBC Sport.

“Once you have something as great as that you don’t want to let go of it.”

Smith scorched round the Old Course in a bogey-free eight-under-par 64 to win the 150th Open Championship by one shot from American Cameron Young, with Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy in third.

And the laid back 29-year-old joked that he has been telling his friends: “It’ll only be a week and we’ll be drinking out of [the Claret Jug] again.

“Hopefully it’s another week like last year and I’m back with the trophy.”

Smith, who has been in England “for a few weeks”, comes into The Open in decent form, having won the most recent LIV Golf event at Centurion Golf Club.

And while he says he’s still as much in the dark as anyone about how the proposed merger between LIV Golf’s funders – Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund – and the PGA Tour will develop, he’s keen to keep his focus on the golf.

“LIV aside, I’m determined to try my best every week and just try and be a better golfer than I was last week,” he said.

“I think as a golfer, I think I’m actually a better golfer now than I was last year.

“But I’ve never tried too much to worry about what people thought of me and I think LIV was really well received in Australia.

“They were probably the two most important things to me. I think when I went down to Australia to play the PGA and the Open, at the end of the year there was no public kind of uproar of me switching tours.

“They were just happy to see me there playing golf. That was awesome.”

Asked if becoming a major champion had changed him in any way, he replied with a smile: “I think the person is the same. I think my old boy would give me a clip around the ears if I was any different.”