Cameron Smith insists he is keeping his feet firmly on the ground as he defends a European Tour title for the first time at this week's Australian PGA Championship.
The home favourite won his first individual professional title at RACV Royal Pines Resort last season and has since gone from strength to strength, finishing in the top five at the Masters Tournament and making the quarter-finals of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.
A further five individual top tens worldwide has helped him move to 33rd in the Official World Golf Ranking and last week he finished second alongside team-mate Marc Leishman at the ISPS HANDA Melbourne World Cup of Golf.
Fellow Australian and former US Open Champion Geoff Ogilvy has tipped Smith to make the top ten in the world and while the 25 year old admits that is a goal, he is not getting carried away.
"My next goal for myself is to make myself a top 20 player in the world," he said. "I've made myself a top 50 player in the world, which was the goal for the last couple of years - finally got that done earlier this year.
"It seems like everything's just happening so quickly. I'm not sure when it's going to happen. Obviously getting that far up is a really big step and something that I want to do but definitely not a time-frame thing. I'm just trying to make myself better every day. If it happens, it happens.
"The Majors and WGCs and stuff like that are important to me but I try not to treat them any differently to any other week. I don't prepare any different, I don't do anything the week before, I don't eat any differently. I just try and do the same thing every week.
"The start for me I think this year, the Thursdays have been a little bit inconsistent. So if I can get out there on the Thursdays and post a pretty good number, I think I'll be in good stead for a couple of chances, hopefully."
I'm just trying to make myself better every day. If it happens, it happens - Cameron Smith
Despite not lifting the trophy last week in Melbourne, Smith believes he learnt a lot from playing alongside Leishman and can carry that into his week on the Gold Coast.
"I have been playing really good golf and I feel really confident in myself," he said.
"I think last week was really important just playing with Marc and having someone there that it affects as well.
"I think maybe the last couple of months or so I've been playing really good golf but I've probably been on the aggressive side maybe a little bit too much and last week was a nice reminder, having someone hitting your next shot, that sometimes being in the middle of the greens and having 20, 30 feet is the best option. So I'll definitely take a lot from last week."
