Cameron Smith won his second LIV title, by holding off Patrick Reed and March Leishman, with a 68 in London at 15 under, just before his Open title defense.
In less than two weeks Cameron Smith will be heading to Royal Liverpool Golf Club in an attempt to hold the Claret Jug once more, the first major he won, just before shocking the PGA with a defection to the LIV Golf League. He's now won two LIV titles, including his first, at Chicago last September, and now in London.
Once considered the rebel league, the PGA and LIV have seemed to have set aside their differences while trying to maintain a new peace brokered by the PGA's Jay Monahan and LIV's financial backer, Saudi Arabia's Private Investment Fund, governed by Yasir Al-Rumayyan. The tension among the players has also thawed, with Sergio Garcia and Rory McIlroy being the latest players to embrace peace.
The reception towards Cameron Smith heading to play in the small town of Hoylake is guaranteed to be far different than maybe it would have been just a few scant months ago.
Smith is also arriving with the win under his belt, which is sure to give him a major boost of confidence heading to the next major. Just look at what the LIV victories did for Brooks Koepka's run at The Masters and more importantly, his fifth major victory at the PGA Championships.
Smith put on a display of excellence for the final day at Centurion Golf Club, with six birdies to offset his three bogeys, with an unfortunate bogey on the 18th preventing the first team playoff in LIV history.
"Obviously thrilled about the individual win, but it would've been nice to get up there with the boys," said Smith, whose team, Ripper GC, came in second, including teammate and second-place individual winner Marc Leishman. "It's a bit of mixed emotions at the moment."
if Smith hadn't birdied the 17th, we may have a three-man playoff with both Patrick Reed and Leishman, with Reed's six under par on Sunday being the best round of the day. His stellar play elevated his team, 4Aces GC to the team win, at 34 under, and the shared $3M prize.
"We were seeing a lot of those teams getting too close to us at the top of that board," Reed said afterward. "I felt like as a team, we just weren't really getting the numbers we wanted to. This week meant a lot for us to go out and make a statement."
The 4Aces are in the team lead at LIV, with London adding to their Adelaide win. Torque GC has won three times on the tour, but has not placed as high as 4Aces at other tournaments.
"I really wanted to concentrate on the individual leaderboard because I knew if I had as good a score as I could, the team would take care of itself," Leishman said. "It was really cool to be in the mix with both the individual and the team."
Reed and Smith are among the 16 LIV players who will be competing at the 151st Open Championship. Both players are in excellent form heading to Royal Liverpool.
"I wouldn't say it really takes the pressure off," Smith said about heading to The Open, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. "I think it's just nice to be playing good golf. There's nothing worse going into a big golf tournament and you're playing crappy golf.
"There's probably a few things to clean up if I want to contend in a couple of weeks' time, but yeah, it's still a big event. It's still got all the biggest names there. It's the Open Championship, so you want to do your best. There's always that pressure.
"It really hasn't been that long [since I won], I think. In Australia at the end of the year was my last win," when the 29 year-old Australian won the Australian PGA Championship.
"It feels like forever," Smith continued, about winning for the first time this year. "Especially the way I've been playing the last couple months, I've been knocking on the door. It's nice to get one out of the way. Hopefully it opens the floodgates a little bit."
The 151st Open Championship will be held at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, Merseyside, England July 20-23. It is the 13th time that British major will take place there.
The next LIV event takes place at the Old White at The Greenbrier, in White Sulphur Springs, WV, Aug. 4-6.
