(LIV Golf) – LIV Golf’s first team playoff has been long overdue. But after 2-1/2 seasons and 28 tournaments, it finally happened Sunday at LIV Golf Adelaide – and it resulted in an epic storybook ending for the hometown Ripper GC.
The all-Australian team, captained by Cameron Smith, beat the all-South African Stinger GC on the second playoff hole to capture a victory that the entire country had been hoping to experience, with more than 90,000 fans attending the three rounds of competition at The Grange Golf Course.
“This is unreal,” said Smith, standing on the 18th green and draped in an Australian flag with his teammates Marc Leishman, Matt Jones and Lucas Herbert. “It’s 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 HyFlyers GC team. The 41-year-old American shot a gritty 4-under 68 to finish at 18 under, one stroke better than Stinger captain Louis Oosthuizen.
“Really surreal,” said Steele, whose win was the 11th of his professional career but first since 2017. “I’m pretty overwhelmed, but to win this event 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 a string of five consecutive birdies on Sunday to give himself a sufficient cushion against the hard-charging Oosthuizen, who shot a 7-under 65. Five players tied for third, two strokes back: HyFlyers teammate Andy Ogletree (65), Legion XIII Captain Jon Rahm (64), the Stingers duo of Charl Schwartzel (64) and Dean Burmester (67) and Torque GC Captain Joaquin Niemann (66), the season-long individual standings leader.
Steele was able to hold off all challengers, and the Rippers appeared to be doing the same for most of the final nine holes, riding the support of the Adelaide fans to the top of the leaderboard. At one point, they led by as many as five strokes until the Stingers started to whittle away at the lead.
When Smith bogeyed his last hole of the day, the 18th, while Oosthuizen birdied his next-to-last hole, both teams finished at 53 under for the week – a record-low counting score in LIV Golf history.
That set up LIV Golf’s first team playoff, with Smith and Leishman representing the Rippers, while Oosthuizen and Burmester represented the Stingers. All four players’ scores counted 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 makeable but challenging birdie range above the 18th hole pin. Meanwhile, Smith was in trouble off the tee and found the bunker with his approach, while Leishman’s approach came up short and rolled back toward the fairway.
As he walked toward the green, Leishman estimated his chances of extending the playoff at 25% – and that was being optimistic. But each Ripper managed to save par, while the Stinger duo each missed their birdie putts, Oosthuizen’s lipping out.
“How we got out of that, I don’t really know,” Leishman said. “We were done and dusted by the looks of it.”
Given a reprieve, the Rippers took advantage on the second playoff hole. Leishman was on in two and made par, while both Stingers found the back greenside bunker, eventually suffering bogeys. Smith had two putts for a bogey to win and needed both of them to set off a raucous celebration that resulted in the Rippers drinking shoeys on the podium.
“You couldn’t have staged a better place to do the first playoff,” said a gracious Oosthuizen in defeat. “Probably couldn’t script it better with the Rippers winning. We had chances. We had two putts on the first hole. And I hit a good putt on the second playoff hole as well. Some days they go in, some days they don’t.”
For the Australian quartet, it was the dream ending for a week of incredible support. For Smith, it was the reason why he joined LIV Golf in 2022, shortly after winning the Open Championship at St Andrews.
“This week has far exceeded my vision for what was ahead,” Smith said. “I think I always knew internally that Australia would really embrace LIV with the culture, with the music, with the entertainment, everything that goes on around it. I always felt like this was the place where it was going to make it big, and how it’s been the last couple of years has been just insane.
“Last year I said, I’m biased, this is the best tournament I’ve ever played. I think this year it’s done it again.”