Playing in only his second LIV Golf event, reigning Open Champion Cameron Smith proved that he is arguably the hottest player in world golf right now following a three-shot win at the series’ fifth tournament held at Rich Harvest Farms in Chicago.

The 29-year-old Australian, who had already won three times this year, said he felt immense pressure to prove to everyone that just because he had switched to a tour that had no cut and guaranteed prize money for all players, that his level of play would somehow drop off.

Smith fired rounds of 66, 68 and 69 for a 13-under-par total that saw him finish three shots clear of Dustin Johnson, who won the previous LIV Golf event in Boston, and Peter Ulhein.

Smith added: “That was the most pressure I’ve been under all year inside of an event. I feel as though I needed to prove to myself, and probably more so to other people, that just because I’ve changed tours doesn’t mean I’m a worse player for it. I’m still out here to win.”

Smith, who finished one stroke out of the three-man playoff won by Johnson in Boston, suffered a couple of early bogeys before bouncing back with three birdies in a five-hole stretch midway through his round. The key moment came in response to Johnson’s birdie at the par-5 7th to momentarily grab a share of the lead. Smith then drained his own birdie putt on top of Johnson’s to reacquire the lead, then followed with another birdie at the 8th to extend it.

“I think it was quite frustrating at the start of the day,” said Smith, who won $4 million in individual prize earnings. “My warm-up wasn’t fantastic. I didn’t feel like I was striking the ball as well as I had the first couple of days. I just kind of stuck in there.”
Johnson, however, did get to celebrate with his 4 Aces GC team, which won for the fourth consecutive time, completing the sweep of the US regular-season events before the Invitational Series heads overseas to Thailand and Saudi Arabia for the next two tournaments. Patrick Reed’s 68 – which included two chip-ins, one for eagle and one for birdie – and Pat Perez’ 69 led the way on Sunday, with Johnson supplying a 70.

Even though Johnson, rarely put heat on Smith on the back nine, the 4 Aces captain delivered the winning birdie on the par-5 18th for the $3m first-place team prize. Uihlein’s Smash GC, captained by Brooks Koepka, made its first appearance on the team podium and shared second-place prize money of $1.5m.

In the individual event, Sergio Garcia shot a closing 67 to finish alone in fourth, while Phil Mickelson had his best result in the series with an eight-place showing following a final round 66 that included nine birdies.

For the final leaderboard from the LIV Golf Invitational – Chicago, click here. 

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For Cameron Smith, it lacked the historic nature of his final round at this year’s Open Championship or the lights-out golf of his last 18 holes at the Tournament of Champions or the dramatic finale at TPC Sawgrass when he took the Players Championship in March.  But the result Sunday at LIV Golf Chicago as he shot 69 in the final round of his second LIV event to finish at 13 under was exactly the same: he lifted a trophy.

Nobody would compare this trophy — which he won over Dustin Johnson, who finished at 10 under and Peter Uihlein, who also came in at 10 under — with any of his other three this year, but the field Smith conquered was solid and he took home more money ($4 million) than he did at any of the other three events where he was the champion.

Smith, who shot 64, 65 and 66 in the final three rounds of his other wins in 2022, posted was just 1 under through 16 holes after firing 66 and 68 over the first two days at Rich Harvest Farms but shut things down before they could get too dramatic with a birdie-birdie finish to put first place completely out of reach. Johnson, who shot 63 in Round 1 and curiously followed it with a 73-70 finish, could not chase him down on Sunday after ceding an early tournament lead to him in the second round on Saturday (they swapped 1-2 spots on the top of the leaderboard). It was actually Uihlein who gave the best effort, firing 66-69 over the last two days and securing his best finish yet (T2) in the LIV Golf League.

Smith has proven himself an elite closer in big time events, but he can also be a menace to try and catch because of how few big numbers he makes on account of his elite short game. He made just four bogeys on a tough golf course over the final two days at Rich Harvest Farms and cruised to a victory in which he was far and away the top player in the field.

“I think I have to prove to probably myself and some other people that I’m still a great player,” Smith said after his victory. “I’m still out here to win golf tournaments. I’m proud of how I hung in there today. I didn’t really have my best stuff the first eight or nine holes, but stuck it tough and made a few putts coming in. It was nice.”

It’s true that Smith, who started on the first hole in the shotgun start format, did not have his best stuff early. Two of his four bogeys on the weekend came on the first six holes on Sunday, but he righted the ship over the last 12 holes and played them in a combined 4 under to pull away from Uihlein and D.J., who Smith noted provided a nice benchmark for great play in LIV.

“He’s probably the one on the group of players here that you look at and you think he’s going to be pretty close to the top of the leaderboard every week,” Smith said. “I hope he thinks the same about me, and hopefully we can keep this going.”

The duo finished in the top five at the LIV Boston event as well with D.J. taking the trophy in a playoff, and Smith missing that playoff by a single stroke.

It was actually D.J.’s team — the 4 Aces — that pulled through for the team win with D.J. making a birdie at the last to seal the victory. His squad of Talor Gooch, Pat Perez and Patrick Reed squeaked out its fourth consecutive LIV Golf win (all but one of the five team finishes have gone to the 4 Aces) by a single stroke over Smash GC, made up of the Koepka brothers (Chase and Brooks), Jason Kokrak and Uihlein, who anchored them this week against the Aces.

Smith’s word choice after the win was interesting. He said he felt like he needed to prove himself to himself “and some other people” after moving over to LIV, even after winning the final major of the year in The Open at St. Andrews. Certainly Smith has heard from chirpy fans that he sold out to go to LIV and that his game will fall off as he moves away from the most competitive tour in the world, and it was clear in this week that he wants to prove that wrong.

Only time will tell how that plays out. However, his three round at Rich Harvest Farms this week were a reminder of what has been very clear over the last nine months, which is that Smith is unequivocally one of the top three players in the world, just as he’s been for all of 2022.

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The two best players in the field at the LIV Golf event in Chicago remain the top two players on the leaderboard after 36 holes. However, they switched positions on Saturday. Dustin Johnson followed his 63 on Friday in Round 1 with a 73 on Saturday — his first over-par round in LIV Golf — and fell back to 8 under. He’s two back of Cameron Smith, who backed up his 66 in Round 1 with a 68 in Round 2 to get to 10 under and take the lead going into the finale on Sunday.

Smith and Johnson are the class of the field by almost any measure, and they have dominated the first two days of LIV’s first event in Chicago (or at least the first event near Chicago). They should be the two that duke it out on Sunday as they play in the final group starting on the first hole.

The task ahead for Johnson is formidable. Smith is the reigning Players champion and Open Championship winner, and in his three victories this year he has shot 65-66-64 in those final rounds. D.J. is looking for his second consecutive LIV victory, but his play has been inconsistent so far this week with one round in the low 60s and the other one ballooning over par. It’s unclear what’s in store for Sunday, and Smith is the only player in the field to shoot 68 or better in each of the first two rounds.

“It was tricky out there today, and I think I got a couple of breaks and D.J. didn’t quite make the putts he usually does,” said Smith.”It’s going to be tight, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

When asked if there was any part of his game that needed work going into Sunday, Smith declined.

“It all feels pretty good to be honest.” 

It all looked pretty good as well. Smith went out in 32 before making an early bogey on the back, which he erased with two birdies on his final two holes. When he’s driving it accurately — which he was for the most part on Saturday — he is perhaps the best player in the world. Every other part of his game is world-class.

Fittingly, D.J.’s team (4 Aces) and Smith’s team (Punch GC) are fighting for the top spot in the team competition this week as well. For the first time since LIV started, D.J.’s score was not used for his team — only the top two scores are used in the first two days — but Pat Perez (-1) and Patrick Reed (-3) picked him up on Saturday. The 4 Aces are -15, one shot ahead of Punch GC, which used Smith’s 4-under 68 and Matt Jones’ even-par 72.

As for who could challenge Smith and Johnson on Sunday, the list is not lengthy. Peter Uihlein shot the best round of the day on Saturday to slide into third at 7 under, and he’s three back of Smith and one back of Johnson. Beyond that, Laurie Canter and Charl Schwartzel are 6 under, and Bryson DeChambeau, Charles Howell III and Lee Westwood are all 5 under.

Sunday is likely going to be what Friday and Saturday were: a Johnson-Smith showdown for $4 million and the fifth LIV Golf title of the year. LIV Golf has been (rightfully) criticized in a lot of ways, but it’s undeniable this week that it’s a league providing a strong Sunday clash between two of the 10 best players on the planet currently. Even though it remains difficult to contextualize what a win for either would mean as it relates to the bigger picture, it should be a fun final 18 holes as Smith and Johnson try to do what they’ve done for the first 36 holes of this tournament: stay ahead of the rest of the pack.

Individual leaderboard

1. Cam Smith: -10
2. Dustin Johnson: -8
3. Peter Uihlein: -7
T4. Charl Schwartzel: -6
T4. Laurie Canter: -6
T6. Bryson DeChambeau: -5
T6. Lee Westwood: -5
T6. Charles Howell III: -5

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At the LIV Golf Chicago event on Friday, Dustin Johnson picked up where he left off a few weeks ago at the LIV Golf Boston event, where he claimed his first title. Shooting an opening round of 63, D.J. leads Cam Smith by three strokes going into Round 2 on Saturday. He also helped his team, 4 Aces, to a total of 11 under, which puts them in line for what would be their fourth consecutive team win.

Johnson, who started on the first hole on Thursday, went out in 30 and only missed one or two shots over the five hours of play in Round 1. With a chance at 59 lingering, he stalled out a bit in the end but was still pleased with his performance, despite playing the last six holes in just 1-under par.

“I struck the ball really well obviously … it was really solid all day,” said Johnson. “Hit it really close. I didn’t have many long putts, but I holed a lot of putt inside 10 feet. I struck it really, really well today.”

When D.J. gets hot, this is what he does. He has the tendency to rip off multiple events in a row no matter where he’s playing or whom he’s playing against. This happened most notably back in 2017 when he won three straight tournaments leading into the Masters before withdrawing from the first major of the year with an injury. He was asked after his round Friday how he was maintaining such a high level of play despite probably playing less competitive golf than he’s ever played in his life (Johnson has played just six times since the PGA Championship in May).

“Right now I feel like I got my swing in a nice groove,” he said. “For me, as long as I hit a couple balls every other day then I can keep it there. Right now, I’m just swinging really well. Fortunately, I’m keeping it going.”

In addition to Johnson’s score, the 4 Aces also counted Talor Gooch’s 2-under number and lead the Punch GC squad — which counted Cam Smith’s -6 and Matt Jones’ -4 — by a single stroke going into the second round.

And if it’s Johnson who is the hottest LIV player going right now, it’s Smith who has been the best LIV player all year, albeit mostly on the PGA Tour and in the major championships. After winning the Tournament of Champions, Players Championship and Open Championship at the Old Course in July, Smith moved over to LIV Golf and finished T4 in his first event in Boston behind D.J. and two other players.

While Smith doesn’t have the beautiful game of Johnson when it comes to ball-striking, he’s been a better scorer throughout the entire year. Whether that’s enough to overcome a three-stroke deficit and the machine-like ball-striking performance D.J. has been putting on of late remains to be seen, but Smith has his Punch GC squad in position to end the mini-run the 4 Aces have been on and get his first post-PGA Tour victory at Rich Harvest Farms this weekend.

Regardless of what you think about LIV, the PGA Tour or the ongoing feud between the two, we can all agree that a Smith-Johnson battle over the weekend would be a delight. The towering, effortless game of a two-time major champion in Johnson facing off against the biggest “he’s got that dog in him” player alive today in Smith. A battle for the ages in the fifth LIV event of the year? Probably not, but the golf should still be great.

Leaderboard

1. Dustin Johnson: -9
2. Cam Smith: -6
3. Matthew Wolff: -5
T4. Charles Howell III: -4
T4. Matt Jones: -4
T4. Henrik Stenson: -4
T4. Lee Westwood: -4

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