Cameron Smith won the Australian PGA Championship for a third time with a three-shot victory at Royal Queensland Golf Club in Brisbane.

Smith, who was playing in his native country for the first time in three years, held an overnight three-shot lead, but was caught early on the back nine, shortly after the second of two separate suspensions due to thunderstorms, which resulted in more than two hours of play lost.

Three birdies in a five-hole stretch from the 12th saw the 29-year-old reassert his command as a closing three-under-par 68 saw him claim victory in the DP World Tour’s season-opening tournament, which is co-sanctioned with the PGA Tour of Australasia.

Australian Jason Scrivener and Japan’s Ryo Hisatsune finished in a share of second at 11 under after posting rounds of 67 and 65 respectively, while Australian Min Woo Lee was two shots further back in fourth alongside Challenge Tour Graduate John Parry.

An exhausted Smith fought back tears as he credited his grandmother for fuelling the final push to a third Australian PGA Championship and cap a magnificent homecoming. The Open Championship winner admitted there were doubts he had the energy to add to his 2017 and 2018 titles. But in his grandmother Carol, who just completed a second round of chemotherapy, walking all 72 holes beside him, he found his inspiration.

“I can’t believe she did it; everyone was telling her to pace herself but she was out there all day, every day,” Smith said, adding that it was also his father Des’s birthday. “Pretty amazing, inspiring, I don’t know how she did it. When I got back tied [after a bogey on the 11th hole] I really wanted to do it for those two.”

Smith, who joined LIV Golf almost immediately after his Open win at St Andrews, and may yet be prevented from taking part in further DP World Tour co-sanctioned events. A meeting is due to be held in London in February to determine whether the DP World Tour can follow the PGA Tour’s lead in banning LIV golfers who are also members of the DP World Tour from competing in their events.

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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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Hampshire’s Liz Young fired a final round of 69 at the VP Bank Swiss Ladies Open to secure her first victory on the Ladies European Tour at the age of 39.

The second round at Golfpark Holzhäusern was completed early on Saturday morning with Brockenhurst player holding a one-shot lead heading into the final round.

Despite a bogey on the first, Young, who is in the middle of her 14th season on tour, bounced back with birdies on the third and seventh holes to put her firmly in contention before she got a stroke of luck on the 10th to save par. Two further birdies on 11 and 14 gave her a two-shot lead with four holes to play and a par on the last was enough for her to seal victory.

“I can’t believe it right now! I’ve been out here a while and haven’t had the win yet, so to do it here in Switzerland is just fantastic,” she said. “On the 10th, I hit a good drive off the tee, and it just ran through the fairway into the rough so I couldn’t lift, clean and place and there was a big chunk of mud on the ball. I thought I had got to go for it, it was only a hybrid in my hand and unfortunately the mud curved it millimetres from out of bounds, so I salvaged the par from that and then hit a nice shot on 11 to get the birdie there instead. I tried to keep in the moment, I didn’t look at scoreboards until the 18th because I wanted to keep in the moment and play every shot as best as I can, and we would see what happen.”

Young had enjoyed a solid 2022 before this week, with two top-10s and two further top-15 finishes, and she knew her game was trending in the right direction. “I did feel it coming, I knew my game was good,” she continued. “In Sotogrande I didn’t play well, and I was burnt out, I took two weeks off which I needed and got my game back in shape. I knew my game was coming together and I was getting better and better – that’s why I’m still out here!”

She added: “I said I’d keep playing as long as I enjoy it, and as long as I keep getting better – 14 years later we’re here. I hope my daughter is watching. I have been out here a while and never really been close to a win, but I’ve had some good results in strong field events. To finally get across the line is amazing.”

Four-time LET winner Linn Grant finished in second place after a final round 69. The Swedish star started with birdies on three and five, but then dropped shots on eight and 14 to put her back to level-par for the day. However, the 23-year-old rallied towards the end of her round with three consecutive birdies on 15, 16 and 17, but was unable to find another on the last and finished with a total of 11-under-par.

Londoner Rosie Davies took third place – her best-ever result on the LET – after a final round of 70, while there was a three-way tie for fourth between Ursula Wikstrom, Alexandra Försterling and Manon De Roey. Surrey’s Annabel Dimmock recorded her best result of the season with T7 alongside Amandeep Drall and Charlotte Liautier, while Emma Spitz rounded out the top 10 on seven-under.

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