Adelaide, Australia: LIV Golf’s first team playoff is long overdue. But after two and a half seasons and 28 tournaments, it finally happened on Sunday at LIV Golf Adelaide – and it resulted in an epic fairytale ending for the hometown Ripper GC.
The All-Australian team, captained by Cameron Smith, defeated All-South African Stinger GC on the second playoff hole to deliver the victory the entire nation was hoping for, with over 90,000 fans attending the three rounds of competition. Grange Golf Course.
“It’s surreal,” said Smith, standing on the 18th green and wrapped in the Australian flag with his teammates Marc Leishman, Matt Jones and Lucas Herbert. “This is a dream come true for us.”
Another dream was experienced by Adelaide individual champion Brendan Steele, who won the first trophy of any kind for his Highflyers GC team. The 41-year-old American shot a brilliant 4-under 68 and finished on 18 under, one stroke better than Stingers captain Louis Oosthuizen.
“Really unreal,” said Steele, whose victory was the 11th of his professional career, but the first since 2017.
“I am very overwhelmed, but winning this competition is really special. I can’t say enough good things about the fans and the golf course and the whole experience this week.”
Steele entered the final round with a one-stroke lead and produced five consecutive birdies on Sunday, giving himself plenty of respite against the hard-charging Oosthuizen, who shot 7-under 65. Five players finished in third place, two players finished in a tie. Strokes Back: Highflyers teammate Andy Ogletree (65), Legion XIII captain Jon Rahm (64), Stingers duo Charl Schwartzel (64) and Dean Burmester (67) and Torque GC captain Joaquin Neiman (66), the season-long individual Standing leader.
Steele was able to hold off all challengers, and the Rippers appeared to do the same for most of the final nine holes, taking the Adelaide fans’ support to the top of the leaderboard. At one point, they were ahead by five strokes until the Stingers began to chip away at the lead.
When Smith bogeyed the 18th hole, his last hole of the day, while Oosthuizen birdied his next-to-last hole, both teams finished at 53 under for the week – a record-low count in LIV golf history. Score.
This set up LIV Golf’s first-ever team playoff, with Smith and Leishman representing the Reapers, while Oosthuizen and Burmester represented the Stingers, with all four players’ scores counting for their respective teams on each playoff hole.
The Stingers appeared to have the advantage on the first playoff hole, with Oosthuizen and Burmester hitting similar tee shots and approaches, leaving them within a challenging birdie range over the 18th hole pin. Meanwhile, Smith was in trouble off the tee and found a bunker with his approach, while Leishman’s approach fell short and rolled back toward the fairway.
As he walked toward the green, Leishman estimated his chances of making the playoff at 25 percent — and that’s optimistic, he said. But each Ripper managed to save par, while the Stinger pair each missed their birdie putts, Oosthuizen lipping out.
“How we get out of this, I really don’t know,” Leishman said. “We were totally blown away and blown away by its appearance.”
After a reprieve, the Reapers took advantage on the second playoff hole. Leishman was at two and under par, while both stingers found the back greenside bunker, ultimately leading to bogeys. Smith had two putts for bogey to win and needed both to celebrate loudly.
Oosthuizen, gracious in defeat, said, “You couldn’t have made a better place for the first playoff.” “Couldn’t possibly have been scripted better than the Reapers’ victory. We had chances. We had two putts on the first hole. And I hit a good putt on the second playoff hole, too. Some days they go in, some days they don’t.”
For the Australian quartet, it was a dream ending after a week of incredible support. For Smith, that’s why he joined LIV Golf in 2022, shortly after winning the Open Championship at St. Andrews.
“This week has gone way beyond my vision of what’s next,” Smith said. “I think I always knew intrinsically that Australia would really embrace LIV with the culture, music, entertainment and everything happening around it. I always felt like this was where it was going to be something big. Has been, and everything that has happened over the last few years has been absolutely crazy.
“Last year I said, I’m biased, this is the best tournament I’ve ever played. “I think it has happened again this year.”
final team standings
Standings and counting scores for Sunday’s final round of the team competition at LIV Golf Adelaide. The three best scores of each team count in the first two rounds while all four scores count in the final round. The team with the lowest cumulative score after three rounds wins the team title. (won in playoff)
1. Ripper GC-53 (Herbert 65, Leishman 65, Jones 68, Smith 70; Road 3 score -20)
2. Stinger GC-53 (Schwartzel 64, Oosthuizen 65, Burmester 67, Grace 68; Road 3 Score -24)
3. Highflyers GC-48 (Ogletree 65, Steele 68, Mickelson 70, Tringale 71; Road 3 score -14)
4. Torque GC-46 (Niemann 66, Munoz 69, Pereira 69, Ortiz 73; Road 3 Score -11)
5. Legion XIII -42 (Rahm 64, Hatton 67, Surratt 68, Vincent 70; Road 3 score -19)
6. Iron Heads GC-41 (Kozuma 68, Na 69, Lee 71, Vincent 73; Road 3 score -7)
7. Clix GC-40 (Kemer 64, Meronc 66, Bland 69, Samouja 69; Road 3 score -20)
8. Crusher GC-40 (Lahiri 67, Casey 68, DeChambeau 70, Howell III 71; Road 3 score -12)
9. RangeGoats GC-38 (Peters 67, Wolfe 69, Uihlein 71, Watson 71; Road 3 Score -10)
10. Fireballs GC-35 (Ensor 64, Garcia 66, Chacarra 67, Puig 69; Road 3 score -22)
11. Smash GC-31 (Koepka 66, Kokrak 69, Gooch 70, McDowell 71; Road 3 score -12)
12. 4ACES GC-30 (Perez 68, Johnson 69, Reed 72, Warner III 72; Road 3 Score -7)
13. Majestics GC-11 (Westwood 69, Horsfield 71, Stenson 71, Poulter 74; Road 3 Score -3)