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Final scores: full leaderboard
Here is how they finished up.
Final attendance of 104,900 for the Australian Open
By Roy Ward
More than 100,000 fans attended the Australian Open at Royal Melbourne golf club this past week.
A crowd of 33,408 fans packed the sand belt course on Sunday and, in total, 104,900 spectators attended from Thursday to Sunday.
Organisers couldn’t say for sure if that figure is a record due to some incomplete records from the past, but it was a very healthy figure and adds to the acclaim the course and the local crowds received from players and visitors.
Cameron Smith of Australia plays his third shot on the 17th hole on Sunday.Credit: Getty Images
This loss will give Cam Smith nightmares
By Iain Payten
That one will sting for Cam Smith. For a long, long time.
It’s not quite Greg Norman-Masters meltdown territory, but Smith will have sleepless nights and a five-footer on the 18th green at Royal Melbourne will take up permanent residence deep inside his mind. Smith needed that win, and had done just about everything to secure it.
Cam Smith will be heartbroken.Credit: Getty Images
Smith has not tasted victory since August 2023, in a LIV event in England, and this year was the worst of his professional career. He missed the cut at every major tournament, and his best finish before today was a tied-5th in a LIV event in Mexico.
He hasn’t had a top ten since July.
The 2022 Open champion has spoken honestly about his struggles this year, and conquering demons he’s rarely had to deal with before. At Royal Melbourne it looked like he finally had, and was on his way to finally adding his name where it has always seems destined to be: on the Stonehaven Cup.
But jittery mistakes on the final two holes – ones he arguably may not have made in his pre-LIV pomp – ultimately cost him, and turned what would have been a head-clearing win into just more head-noise.
Credit must go to Rasmus Neergard-Petersen for his incredible finish. It’s easy to overlook the fact he is at the end of his first-ever year on a major tour. He’ll get an invite to the Masters for winning this tournament, and we should keep an eye out for him in the future.
Where this leaves Smith, however, is anyone’s guess.
Final scores: full leaderboard
Here is how they finished up.
‘This means the world’: Neergaard on his win
New Australian Open champion Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen spoke to broadcasters after his maiden DP World Tour title and the invite to The Masters next year that comes with this win.
On his first win:
“It’s hard. I’m really at a loss for words. It’s been a battle all day,” Neergaard told broadcasters.
“Even from the outside, you can look calm but it was a storm inside [for me] all day.
“But I managed to keep battling and to get it up and down to make that putt on the last – I don’t know what to say, to be honest.”
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen of Denmark plays his second shot on the 15th hole.Credit: Getty Images
Emotions after losing two-shot lead:
“Like the other couple of days, I’ve been able to finish well,” he said.
“I always had the belief that if I keep hitting my spots, eventually, it’s going to drop and I would be able to get some shots back.
“The birdie on 12 was huge, getting back into a tie for first. Then coming in, it’s kind of hard now, I almost can’t remember the shots.”
On his rise this year and earning a Masters invite:
“It means the world,” Neergaard told broadcasters.
“The Masters is the event I’ve grown up watching so many times, to end up playing in it is awesome. It’s come by so fast. I don’t feel like it has been two and half years since I was out of college.
“To get the win on my final event of the season was the only thing missing from a perfect season for me.”
Smith hands victory to Danish rival on 72nd hole
By Sam McClure
Cam Smith has fallen just short of first significant win in more than two years, after bogeying the last hole to gift Dane Rasmus Neergaard-Peterson victory on the 72nd hole of the Australian Open at Royal Melbourne.
Cam Smith holds his head in his hands after missing the putt on 18.Credit: Getty Images
Victory was within touching distance for the Queenslander when he hit the green on the 18th hole with his approach, and watched his Danish opponent find the thick, native rough before the bunkers.
But Neergaard-Peterson made an incredible up and down and Smith three-putted, missing a very makeable five-footer to hand his opponent victory.
But after disaster on the 18th, a devastated Cam Smith has ducked the media.
Smith spent plenty of time with the fans, signing autographs. But it was clear he didn’t want to dissect that final putt with the press.
Golf Australia has confirmed Smith won’t be talking to media.
How did that happen? Incredible scenes on 18th green.
By Iain Payten
Okay, let’s break down the incredible – and heartbreaking – scenes we have just seen.
It looked like Cam Smith had one hand on the Stonehaven Cup with Neergaard-Petersen having landed in nasty rough to the right of the green, and with a chip over a bunker to come. He did that well, and left himself a curling five-metre putt to make par.
Smith, meanwhile, had a 20-metre putt with a huge left to right break but was unbackable to put it close and two-putt for the win.
But the 26-year-old Dane then stepped up and drained a clutch par putt.
That put all the pressure on Smith, who then had a 1.5 metre putt to force a playoff. He missed it just to the left.
Heartbreak for Smith as Neergaard-Petersen wins the Australian Open!
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen has won the Australian Open.
It is his first major professional win.
A missed putt by Cam Smith on the final hole was brutal, and denied the Australian a first win of his national championship.
Door opens for Smith after Rasmus shanks approach on 18
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen has blinked, and put his approach to the 18th green into a nasty rough to the right of the green. He has to chip over a bunker.
Smith is safely on the green but with a long sloped putt ahead.
Both will need at least two shots to finish, but the difference in quality of the second one will be the winning and losing of this tournament.
Kim is in the back bunker and in strife.
The 17th: Rasmus misses eagle and Smith survives
By Iain Payten
On a hole where Rasmus missed an eagle by a centimetre, and Smith was way off the green, somehow the pair have both birdied and will stay tied on the last hole.
The 17th is a par five where birdie is a must on the last day, and after nailing a longer drive, Neergaard-Petersen also hit a superior approach with a five-iron and rolled it through to just off the green.
He missed the eagle putt by a bee’s appendage, and with it the chance to go to 16-under. But Rasmus birdied to move to 15-under.
Smith was in all sorts of trouble, after hooking his approach and bombing it on the heads of the gallery to the left of the green.
With a difficult 30-metre chip, he tried to land the ball and run it towards the hole and did well, but a sprinkler slightly slowed the ball. He then nailed a curling pressure putt from four metres.
The tension!
The 16th: Leaders both make knee-trembling putts
By Iain Payten
The tension builds. None of the trio could make a birdie, and they all did well just to make pars.
Neergard-Petersen and Kim both went over the back of the green at the 16th, which is a tricky 170m par three.
The Dane misread the line of his downhill putt, with a sizeable left to right break, so was never a chance of making birdie. He made a nerveless putt of about two metres to make par.
Smith was on the green towards the back and gave the hole a scare, but it was a decent result. He was also close enough to make a pressure par putt.
The downhill line to the hole was about damage minimisation, given a too-strong putt could have easily ended up as a killer bogey.
LEADERBOARD
T1: Cam Smith: 14-under (16)
T1: Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen: 14-under (16)
3: Si Woo Kim: 13-under (16)
T4: Michael Hollick: 12-under (18)
T4: Daniel Hillier: 12-under (16)
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
