10 Jul 2023 | Professional golf |
Aussies On Tour: Smith on song for Royal Liverpool
by Martin Blake
Cameron Smith completed his preparation for next week’s defence of the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool by winning his second LIV Golf event on Sunday in London.
The Australian picked up his second LIV individual title closing with a 68 at Centurion Club to post 15-under and win by a shot from his teammate Marc Leishman and American Patrick Reed.
It was somewhat of a drough-breaker but the day did not entirely belong to Smith, who lipped out with a par putt of less than two metres at the final hole which cost his team, the Rippers, a chance of winning the team event.
Had it dropped, Ripper would have had a playoff with 4Aces for that competition.
But Smith was delighted to break what for him has been a longer-than-usual streak without a win, stretching to eight months since the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland last November.
He will rest up next week before teeing it up at Royal Liverpool in the final major of 2023 the following week.
“I’m thrilled,” Smith said. “It gives me a shot of confidence, absolutely. This was a gutsy win. Over the weekend I didn’t have my best stuff with the driver, which had actually been feeling really good. So I still have some work to do on that but I am really happy to get the win.
"It really hasn't been that long, but it feels like forever. And especially the way I've been playing the last couple of months. I've been knocking on the door of winning, and it's nice to get one out of the way, and hopefully, it opens the floodgates a little bit."
Smith is one of 10 Australians in the Open field.
The Australians played well as a group at the US Women’s Open at Pebble Beach but none was in contention as American Allisen Corpuz won the first-ever Open played at that famous venue.
Ultimately three – Minjee Lee, Hannah Green and Grace Kim – grabbed top-15 finishes.
Lee began the final day within shouting distance but a bogey at the par-5 second hole followed by a string of pars saw her fall out off the leaderboard. She would close with a 75 to finish tied-13th along with Kim (71 today) and Green (69).
In Denmark, Victorian David Micheluzzi had a nice week on the DP World Tour, picking up a 36,000 Euro pay cheque for tied-17th in the Made In HimmerLand tournament.
Micheluzzi was playing on a sponsor’s invitation and also is in the field for Royal Liverpool. Results
LPGA Tour US Women’s Open, Pebble Beach, California
• 1 – Allisen Corpuz 69-70-71- 69 – 279 $US 2,000,000 • T13 Minjee Lee 72-73-72-75 – 292 $170,020 • T13 Grace Kim 74-76-71-71 – 292 $170,020 • T13 Hannah Green 76-71-76-69 – 292 $170,020 • T33 Gabriela Ruffels 78-71-70-77 – 296 $49,649 • T33 Lydia Ko (NZ) 76-71-74-75 – 296 $49,649 • MC Maddison Hinson-Tolchard 78-80 – 158 • MC Amelia Garvey (NZ) 78-75 – 153 DP World Tour Made in HimmerLand, Denmark • 1 – Rasmus Hojgaard 68-70-65-64 – 267 €507,458 • T17 David Micheluzzi 71-69-62-70 – 272 €36,119 • MC Jason Scrivener 72-71 – 143 • MC Blake Windred 73-76 – 149
PGA Tour John Deere Classic, TPC Deer Run, Illinois • 1 – Sepp Straka 73-63-65-62 – 263 $US 1,332,000 • T31 Aaron Baddeley 70-67-71-65 – 273 $45,232 • T42 Geoff Ogilvy 70-68-69-68 – 275 $23,606 • 66 Harrison Endycott 68-69-70-73 – 280 $15,910 • MC Cameron Percy 74-69 – 143 • MC Greg Chalmers 72-73 – 145 Challenge Tour Italian Challenge Open, Golf Nazionale, Italy • 1 – Matteo Manassero 66-65-69-67 – 267 $US 56,000 • MC Jordan Zunic 74-73 – 147 • MC Connor McKinney 81-68 – 149 LIV Golf LIV London, Centurion Club • 1 – Cameron Smith 63-67-68 – 198 $US 4,000,000 • T2 Marc Leishman 64-69-66 – 199 $1,875,000 • T31 Matt Jones 73-67-70 – 210 $167,500 • T31 Danny Lee (NZ) 74-67-69 – 210 $167,500 • 39 Jed Morgan 75-69-69 – 213 $146,250 Legends Tour Swiss Seniors Open, Bad Ragaz, Switzerland • 1 – Adilson Da Silva 66-62-67 – 195 $N/A • T6 Michael Long (NZ) 69-67-65 – 201 • T19 Jason Norris 66-69-69 – 204 • T25 Peter Fowler 68-71-67 – 206 LET Access Series Capio Ogon Trophy, Upsala GolfKlubb, Sweden • 1 – Sofie Kibsgaard Nielsen 73-72-70 – 215 $N/A • T16 Kelsey Bennett 73-72-76 – 215 • T29 Hanee Song (NZ) 77-73-73 – 223 • T36 Kristalle Blum 75-72-77 – 224
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