Benminster, N.J. – Last month in London, Cameron Smith won the individual title, but his Ripper GC came up one stroke short of forcing a playoff. A missed par putt on the final hole left Smith and his team with mixed feelings
The all-Australian quartet left nothing to chance Sunday at LIV Golf Bedminster. With Smith running away with the individual trophy and young Jediah Morgan having the most impressive round of his LIV career, the Rippers won their first-ever team title by 11 strokes, the biggest team margin of victory this season.
“I won a couple of weeks ago in London, and I wasn’t happy with the way that I won,” Smith said. “… I didn’t want the same thing to happen today.”
Starting the day with a four-shot lead, Smith overcame a shaky start and pulled away with a stretch of four birdies in five holes midway through his round. His 3-under 68 left him at 12 under as he won by seven strokes over Crusher GC’s Anirban Lahiri.
Abraham Ancer, Patrick Reed and Dean Burmester tied for third at 4 under, with Ancer claiming the third-place points finish with the better final round.
Anirban Lahiri shot an opening 3-over 74 on Friday, then shot 10 strokes lower on Saturday with a 7-under 64, the low round of the week. On Sunday, he produced a 1-under 70, managing two birdies late in his round to climb into solo second.
Lahiri moves to 15th in the season-long standings
It’s Lahiri’s second runner-up finish of the season. He now moves into 15th in the season-long points standings.
Smith’s individual winning margin is the largest in LIV Golf history, besting the six-stroke victory by Bryson DeChambeau last week at Greenbrier. It also moved Smith into first place in the Individual Champion points standings. With two regular-season events left, Smith now has a 21-point lead over three-time winner Talor Gooch as he seeks the season-long title.
“It's something that I've worked for, something that was a goal of mine at the start of the year was to be up there with at least a chance for the last event,” Smith said, who won for the third time in 15 regular-season LIV starts dating back to last season.
While Smith has done plenty of celebrating since joining LIV Golf, his Ripper teammates were happy to join him atop the podium on Sunday for the first time.
“Just the satisfaction of being able to celebrate a win with some of your best mates in the world,” said Marc Leishman. “… We got close in London as a team, but it was a weird feeling on the 18th green.
“For us to pull ahead as a team and be able to celebrate on that 18th green an individual victory, a team victory, eight happy blokes - caddies, teams, everything - it was more than that. That's what LIV Golf is all about, that team side of it, and just celebrating together.”
