Cam Smith leads Aussie team to LIV Golf victory in Adelaide
Cameron Smith says captaining his all Australian Ripper GC to a teams victory on home soil at LIV Golf Adelaide is a “dream come true”.
The Ripper foursome - Smith, Marc Leishman, Matt Jones and Lucas Herbert - won on the second hole of a nerve-jangling playoff at The Grange on Sunday.
Riding waves of raucous home crowd support, Smith’s team pipped the all South African Stingers GC, led by Louis Oosthuizen, in the first teams play-off in LIV history.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.“This is unreal. It’s a dream come true for us,” Smith said.
“We have been talking about it all year. It’s the tournament we wanted to win obviously.
“It’s just so good.”
On the initial two days of the tournament, only the top three players’ scores count.
But on the final day, all four count and the Australians and South Africans were locked at 53 under - a record low LIV teams total.
Smith picked Leishman as his partner for a playoff of only two players per team and decided by aggregate scores on each hole.
After both teams banked pars on the first extra hole, the Australians cashed in on a pair of Stingers blunders to win on the second hole.
Fittingly, it was Smith, drained after a week in the spotlight, who completed the final putt.
The teams format is yet to catch fire with fans but underpins a LIV long-term philosophy: gain a footprint in as many locations in the world as possible.
Australia has rapidly been converted into Ripper territory by Smith and co.
The LIV brains trust hope other regions follow with teams mirroring the Stingers in South Africa, Torque GC - Chile pair Joaquin Niemann and Mito Pereira, Mexico’s Carlos Ortiz and Colombian Sebastian Munoz - in Latin America, and the England-flavoured Majesticks GC in Great Britain.
