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Two-time defending champion Cameron Smith insists he doesn't need a miracle to move from five shots back to win a third-straight Australian PGA Championship.
Cameron Smith can still see a way to a historic third-straight Australian PGA Championship and the leader, five shots ahead, can too.
Not even Greg Norman in his pomp could managed three-straight titles, with only Dan Soutar more than 100 years ago able to string a trio of Australian PGA titles together in the tournament's first three instalments.
An even par-round that featured an eagle, two bogeys and plenty of clutch up-and-down par saves at Royal Pines on Saturday halted the momentum Smith (five-under) gathered from a Friday 65.
But he is still close enough to bother leader and 2013 champion Adam Scott (10-under), who birdied the last to finish one shot ahead of Wade Ormsby.
"I don't even think he might need to shoot 63; if I was four shots back, I'd be thinking 66," Scott said.
"The leaders still have to play a hell of a round of golf to shoot 2 or 3-under, so he's right in the mix."
Smith thinks he may need to go lower, but based on his Friday efforts knows that's not beyond his reach.
"I had 7-under with playing just my normal stuff, so there's no need to hit driver off every tee," he said after his round.
"I could be standing here out of the tournament and it looks like I'm only going to be four or five back, which with a day like that, Christmas has come a bit early."
"I'll try and get out with a bit of a hot start; those first five or six holes, really the whole front nine, you can really get going if you're hitting if good.
"Plenty of opportunities, plenty of wedges and the putts just need to go in."
Scott is chasing his first title in nearly four years but has moved to world No.18 on the back of a consistent US PGA Tour season.
Smith is one of 16 men within five shots of the former world No.1 and US Masters champion though and hopes his recent dominance on the Gold Coast will help on Sunday.
"I was behind the first year I won, so I can kind of draw from that," he said.
"But I'm going to have to do some hard work, it's going to be tough."
