Alex Smalley continues his strong play at Port Royal Golf Course, a venue where he’s always felt at home. The Duke alum explains why the wind in Bermuda tests every part of your game — and why embracing the chaos can lead to success.
💬 “The wind here is a great equalizer.”
💬 “You really have to manage your ball around here.”
💬 “Sometimes it’s tough just to stand upright and make a stroke.”
💬 “If my swing’s in a decent spot and I follow the game plan, I can be consistent out here.”
In this thoughtful interview, Smalley breaks down:
🏖️ His strategy for windy conditions and small greens
🧠 How staying compact and focused helps his ball flight
🎯 Why patience and precision matter more than power in Bermuda
📈 How a T-4 finish in Japan reignited his confidence late in the season
#AlexSmalley #BermudaChampionship #PGATOUR #GolfInterview #WindGolf #ButterfieldBermuda
Another solid round here at um Port Royal, but what do you like about this golf course so much? I don’t know. The weather’s, you know, the weather can be kind of iffy this time of the year, so uh you have a lot of changing conditions. Um I think the uh the wind here is a great equalizer. Um you really have to manage your ball around here. I know the holes aren’t the longest, but there’s some 360 yard par4s where we’re hitting driver and then eight iron if it’s into the wind, you know. So, it’s it’s really all up to the wind direction and how hard it’s blowing. And um I’ve I’ I’ve seen a couple rounds here where it’s not really blowing and you have to shoot six or seven under just to keep pace. But, you know, when it’s up 20 to 30 miles an hour, anything under par is, you know, very solid and I think most guys would take that. Did do you feel like that’s what you did well today, just managing your your round or was there something that really stood out for you striking one? I don’t know. No, I mean the greens aren’t the largest here, so when the wind does get up, it gets very tricky to um hit a lot of the greens. Um but yeah, I mean just managing just trying to give yourself as many birdie looks as you can really being cognizant of if you have a putt that’s into the wind or downwind because the speed the speed changes drastically um according to that. Uh I made a lot of good putts today. Putting felt pretty solid most of the day. um had a couple crosswinds where I played a little more break because of the wind and it didn’t quite take it, but you know, I I made my fair share as well. So, yeah, overall pretty pretty happy with how it went. Has it been a little stressful for you with the number reducing from 125 to 100? I was just looking at the fall and you know, a a lot of missed cuts there, but with an impressive T4 in uh in Japan, how big was that event for you? Yeah, I mean, you know, I I I forget when they announced when they were reducing cards, if it was at the beginning of the year before the season started or if it was kind of February, March time frame, but I got off to a pretty decent start this year. Um, which with the card reductions kind of put me, you know, kind of relaxed me a little bit. You know, I I know it’s a very stressful time of the year for a lot of players out here. Um, so yeah, I mean, getting off to a good start the season was was huge. And like you mentioned, I hadn’t played the best in the fall, but um I tell people all the time, you know, it’s with the way the points are out here, you know, you can miss a lot of cuts, but if you have a top two or three finish, you know, that kind of uh helps you get back on track. So, um you can miss a lot of cuts, but if you have a lot of top fives, you’re, you know, you’re kind of vaultting up the the point structure as well. Do do you kind of lick your chops coming to an event like this where you’ve had some good finishes, played four times already. And um how much do you look forward to coming to an event like that? Yeah, I mean any anytime there there’s certainly events where, you know, everybody has their events where they feel comfortable. This is one of them for me. Um I haven’t done super great on those that I felt comfortable on this year, but um yeah, I mean I always look forward to coming back here. Um, sometimes I don’t look forward to playing in 30 mph winds because it’s, you know, sometimes it can be tough just to stand upright and stand still over a putt and, you know, the wind’s blowing you around and um, you could get a gust where it’s, you know, mainly into and then you get a gust off your right and that kind of throws off your stroke. So, there’s, like I said, there’s a lot of variables that go into it, but um I feel like I have a decent game plan around here. And if if my swing’s in a decent spot, and uh I just follow the game plan, I think I uh and I guess the results have kind of shown that I can be consistent out here. What was a highlight today for you, a particular shot or moment? Oh. Um, probably my T-shot on uh number eight in the par three. Um, I think it was playing about 195. Eight’s kind of weird because the the T- box is kind of kind of back behind the trees and the the wind was off the right a little bit and so those trees block it. So, you can’t really feel a lot of the wind on the T- box, but you see the flag bending over sideways up by the green. So I hit a five iron a little kind of low 3/4 five iron and it started right edge of the green and once it got past all the trees and towards the green it probably drew 30 or 35 ft and went in there to six feet but it still wasn’t an easy six-footer. You know it’s blowing all around and it was a downhill left to right putt but um happened to go in. You you mentioned the start of your season I think you you made six of seven cuts. your worst finish was T-21 and then like you said you’ve four missed four of your last five but with the T4 in Japan what maybe have you been searching for or what maybe do you think you’ve found obviously coming to a place that you’re really comfortable at? Yeah, I think for me a lot of um a lot of my swing keys come when my timing is correct. Um, I tend to get in trouble if my transition’s a little too quick or um if I swing a I have a tendency to kind of overswing, maybe swing a little past parallel at times. So, especially here when it’s blowing this hard, one of my keys is just to kind of feel a little tighter and compact with my motion and the ball usually comes out a little lower, which works decently well here. So, um yeah, I mean it’s it it I was just trying to get back into that and um putting hasn’t been great this fall. I’ve had uh a lot of stress on second putts if the first one didn’t go in and um out here when it’s blowing as hard as it is when you have a three or four footer. It’s, you know, it’s very nerve-wracking and it’s it’s very stressful. But I had I had my speed was very good today. I had a lot of just kind of I call them mindless happens. You just kind of get up there and don’t even have to think about it. You just hit it and it goes in. So, um, that kind of helped reduce the stress a little bit. Thanks, Alex. Appreciate your help.
