It was Australian glory Down Under in Adelaide when home heroes Ripper GC held their nerve against an all-South African Stinger GC in the first ever LIV Golf team playoff to take home a tidy bonus.
Ripper GC – made up of Australians Cameron Smith, Marc Leishman, Matt Jones and Lucas Herbert – and Stinger GC – formed of South Africans Louis Oosthuizen, Branden Grace, Charl Schwartzel and Dean Burmester – achieved record team scores of 53-under par at The Grange in South Australia to take LIV Golf into its first ever playoff since its inception in 2022.
The win on home soil bagged the team £3m between them.
LIV dream
“This is unreal,” said Smith. “It’s a dream come true for us.
“This week has far exceeded my vision for what was ahead.
“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.”
But it does make you wonder whether a reconfiguration to the LIV Golf League could create moments like we saw at the weekend, when thousands followed Smith up the 18th for the playoff, jeering and cheering as putts were so closely missed.
In the 4Aces GC – Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Harold Varner III and Pat Perez – you have an entirely American team. The same goes for HyFlyers GC – Phil Mickelson, Cameron Tringale, Brendan Steele and Andy Ogletree.
Torque GC – made up of Joaquin Niemann, Mito Pereira, Sebastian Munoz and Carlos Ortiz – is entirely South American while Smith’s Ripper and Oosthuizen’s Stinger are each made up of competitors from the same country.
One wonders…
One wonders, therefore, whether LIV Golf should look beyond the individual title and instead focus on the team title with a calendar to match.
Each team could be seen to have what is described as a home weekend where the circuit is able to promote them accordingly.
It would be good for LIV Golf and a point of difference from rival tours such as the PGA and DP, even more so if the sport’s merger goes ahead.
We’ve already seen Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII, Smith’s Ripper, Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers and Brooks Koepka’s Smash win on the tour this year.
It doesn’t mean the tour can only go to nations whose players are represented, but it means the league can establish a foundation venue for each team intersected with the likes of Las Vegas, Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia.
It was American Steele who picked up the individual win and $4m in Adelaide, however, with the 41-year-old finishing on 18-under par, a shot ahead of Oosthuizen in second and two clear of Schwartzel in third.
Rahm was tied with Schwartzel in third while series leader Niemann was also in a podium share.
“I’m pretty overwhelmed,” Steele said. “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.”
The Crushers lead the overall team standings this season ahead of Legion XIII and Torque GC.
Torque’s Niemann is top of the individual standings ahead of Legion XIII’s Rahm and Stinger’s Burmester.
Highlights