Cameron Smith arrived at the PGA Championship with a different coach, a simpler swing and a harder edge after last month’s Masters left him shaken. The 32-year-old missed the cut there with rounds of 74 and 77, his sixth major cut in a row, and said the result pushed him into a change he could no longer avoid.

"I was pretty devastated," Smith said. "I feel like I’ve put in a lot of hard work over the last year and a half and I’ve just got absolutely nothing out of my game, so it’s just time for a change."

That change led him to Claude Harmon III, who works with Dustin Johnson on LIV Golf and is the son of Butch Harmon. Smith said the new setup stripped away the clutter that had built up in his swing. "I got to a point where I was thinking so many things in my golf swing that I couldn’t hit the golf shot, which is never a fun place to be," he said. "He just really simplified it and made me think one thing rather than a thousand."

Smith and Harmon met before the PGA Championship at Aronimink after Smith parted ways with longtime coach Grant Field, a relationship that began when he was "like nine years old." Smith said the breakup was painful. "It was a terrible, terrible conversation to have," he said. "I’ve been seeing Grant since I was like nine years old, and he’s a really good friend as well so it was tough, but I feel like I’ve done the right thing for my golf."

The slump has been long and public. Smith had not played a weekend in one of golf’s four biggest tournaments since the 2024 US Open at Pinehurst, a slide that stands in stark contrast to where he was four years ago, when he was ranked second in the world and held The Players and The Open at the same time. He won at the Old Course in 2022 and joined the LIV Golf League in the months after that victory, but the major results have not followed.

Smith said the work with Harmon is beginning to show signs of life, even if the proof still has to arrive in competition. "It’s starting to feel good and starting to feel like I can actually commit to some shots and hit some different shots, so it’s coming along nicely," he said. He added, "I think what I’ve done is right."

Aronimink brings its own test, especially on the greens. Smith called the putting surfaces "super funky," another reminder that fixing a swing is only part of the job. But he said the larger question is about conviction, not effort, after a year and a half in which he believes the results have not reflected the work. "It’s frustrating because I don’t think if I was playing anywhere else, the results would have really changed," he said. "I think people see average play aligned with changing a tour or not working hard enough. It really couldn’t be more the opposite."

Smith still sounds like a player trying to drag himself back to the level he once set. "I think the fire is in the belly," he said. "I just need to go out there and do it, and get some confidence back."