Cameron Smith vowed to enjoy a “Mad Monday” blowout after he and Ripper GC won the LIV Golf Team Championship in Texas on Sunday night.
Former Open champion Smith has invited compatriots Marc Leishman, Lucas Herbert and Matt Jones to celebrate in true Australian style – by drinking all the beer they can stomach to toast their glorious end to the season.
“Mad Monday is a term we use in Australia for all the footy teams that exit the finals early or win,” said Smith.
“The day after they’re done they generally will go up and dress up. It’s a costume party tomorrow. I don’t know what these guys will come as. It’s all a surprise. It’ll be a good day.”
Herbert added: “I think it won’t be Mad Monday, I think it’ll be a period of sort of three or four days, a madness 72 hours. But yeah, I think the boys will have a good time.”
Captain Smith led from the front with a four-under-par 68 to help Ripper win the four-team final on a combined 11 under. Herbert shot a 69, while Leishman and Jones carded 70s.
It was their third team win of the season, following back-to-back victories in Singapore and in front of an adoring home crowd in Adelaide – LIV Golf’s most popular leg.
Dustin Johnson’s 4Aces and Kevin Na’s Iron Heads, the surprise package in Dallas, finished three shots behind on eight under, one better than Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII.
The latter team were forced to play without individual champion Rahm on the final day after he was taken ill over the weekend, and teammate Tyrrell Hatton admitted it had been an uphill task.
“It was always going to be hard with Jon not playing, especially when all four scores count,” Hatton said. “That being said, it’s still disappointing to finish last out of the four today.”
Ripper’s team victory was consolation for Smith going winless in all 12 individual events and he admitted it had been “very frustrating” at times.
“I think probably in hindsight I wish I would have trusted what I was doing technically a little bit more,” he said. “But from a team standpoint, I couldn’t have wished for anything more.”
Smith confirmed that Ripper would retain the same line-up next year, despite Herbert and Jones finishing in the “open zone” that allows them to be traded out.
The lowest team scores of the day came in the second-tier competition, where South African team Stinger’s 15 under par pipped Sergio Garcia’s Fireballs to fifth place by one shot.
Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood’s Majesticks ended the season on a high note by winning the third tier. Their score of five under beat Joaquin Niemann’s Torque by one and clinched ninth.