Cameron Smith and Ripper GC won a LIV Golf team title for their native Australia, not to mention boatloads of cash for themselves.
The all-Australian team of Smith, Lucas Herbert, Matt Jones and Marc Leishman edged 4Aces GC and won the LIV Golf Team Championship on Sunday outside Dallas, bringing a close to the third season of the Saudi-backed breakaway tour.
The final round of the team championship featured 18 holes of stroke play at Maridoe Golf Club in Carrollton, Texas, with every player’s score combining to create their respective teams’ scores. The four winners in Saturday’s match-play semifinals qualified for the final.
Herbert and Smith made hugely important birdie putts down the stretch to lift Ripper to 11-under 277 and a three-stroke victory.
Tied for second at 8 under were Dustin Johnson’s 4Aces, which won the team title in the inaugural 2022 season, and the underdog Iron Heads GC. Legion XIII — playing without captain Jon Rahm of Spain, the 2024 individual champion — placed fourth at 6 under.
Ripper is the third different team to win the LIV team championship in three seasons. They captured $14 million of the $50 million prize pool.
There was a three-way tie at 8 under featuring Ripper, 4Aces and Iron Heads with just a few holes for each team to finish. Herbert, atoning for a triple bogey early in his round, was powering Ripper’s late move with three straight birdies at Nos. 15-17, as the team eked ahead at 9 under.
Harold Varner III made a long birdie at his last hole, No. 1, to bring 4Aces into a tie with Ripper at 9 under. But Herbert then rolled a slippery birdie putt into the cup, following it in with an emphatic fist pump, as Ripper moved back in front at 10 under.
Patrick Reed of 4Aces had a 5-foot birdie try at the final hole, but it curled dramatically right to left and stayed out. Smith then rolled in his fifth birdie of the day at No. 17 to give Ripper a two-shot lead.
Johnson, playing in the final group with Smith, Iron Heads captain Kevin Na and Legion XIII’s Tyrrell Hatton, had a chance to bring 4Aces to 10 under as well, but his birdie try at No. 17 rolled past the cup.
Then, after Smith teed off at No. 18, Johnson’s tee shot sailed left and into a water hazard, essentially clinching Ripper’s victory.
Smith led Ripper with a 4-under 68. Herbert shot a 3-under 69, and Jones and Leishman each posted 70. Johnson and Reed scored the best rounds for 4Aces at 69.
Na and Japan’s Jinichiro Kozuma led Iron Heads with rounds of 69. Hatton, of England, paced Legion with a 68 as LIV alternate John Catlin stood in for Rahm over the weekend while Rahm dealt with “severe flu symptoms.”
The Iron Heads finished last in the regular-season standings but upset Brooks Koepka’s Smash GC and Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GC (the defending champions) in match play Friday and Saturday to advance to the final.
–Field Level Media
