World No 3 and reigning Open champion Cameron Smith overcame a final-round challenge and electrical storms to win the Australian PGA Championship for a third time Sunday by three strokes.
The 29-year-old was back on home soil after three Covid-impacted years away, with his presence helping draw the biggest galleries to the Royal Queensland Golf Club in Brisbane since the 1980s.
He didn’t disappoint the fans, firing a final round 68 to end on 14-under 270, seeing off the challenge of Japan’s Ryo Hisatsune (65) and Australian Jason Scrivener (67) who both tied for second at the DP World Tour-sanctioned event.
“It’s awesome mate, I really didn’t think I had it in me this week, to be honest,” said Smith. “The start of the week was a little bit scratchy, but my game got better and better as the week went on other than the front nine today.”
Smith defected to the LIV circuit and is banned from playing on the PGA Tour, but is allowed to tee off in DP World Tour events in his homeland as a full member of the PGA Tour of Australasia.
His defection to LIV in September came after a breakthrough year with three PGA Tour victories, including the 150th Open at St Andrews in July, then one on the breakaway tour in Chicago.
Smith took a three-stroke lead into the final round ahead of China’s Liu Yanwei and Japan’s Masahiro Kawamura.
But by the time the players were forced off the fairways for a second time Sunday due to threatening electrical storms it had dwindled to one.
Smith returned and made a bogey at 11 for a three-way tie at the top with Scrivener and Hisatsune.
But he then played a magical shot from the rough and converted a birdie putt at the next to reclaim the lead.
Another birdie at the 13th put him two strokes clear with five to play and when Scrivener made a disastrous double-bogey at the 17th, the victory was all but assured.
“It was a little bit frustrating,” Smith said on the delays. “You’re kind of in the mojo there a little bit and for it to be stopped not once but twice … but I just held on and played really solid those last eight holes.”
Former Masters champion Adam Scott ended tied 28th, despite having Tiger Woods’ ex-caddie Steve Williams on the bag.
© Agence France-Presse
