Australian PGA Championship: Open champion Cameron Smith claims victory
- Published
Smith will be in action again at next week's Australian Open in Melbourne
Australian PGA Championship final leaderboard |
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-14 C Smith (Aus); -11 R Hisatsune (Jpn), J Scrivener (Aus); -9 M W Lee (Aus), J Parry (Eng); -8 D Micheluzzi (Aus); -7 C Davis (Aus), G Chalmers (Aus), T Kanaya (Jpn), S Brazel (Aus), M Kawamura (Jpn) |
Open champion Cameron Smith starred in his home town of Brisbane to win the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship by three strokes.
Smith, 29, held a three-shot overnight lead and finished with a three-under round of 68 to finish on 14 under and secure the title for a third time.
The world number three had four birdies and one bogey in his final round.
It was enough to see off the challenge of Japan's Ryo Hisatsune and fellow Australian Jason Scrivener.
Hisatsune shot a final-round 65 to rise from 11th overnight while England's John Parry matched the Japanese player's six-under-par final round to climb from joint 20th to finish tied in fourth with Australia's Min Woo Lee.
"It's awesome. I really didn't think I had it in me at the start of the week," said Smith, who won the tournament in 2017 and 2018 and was playing in his home country for the first time in three years.
"I was a bit scratchy and the game has got better and better as the week went on, other than the front nine today."
He also paid tribute to his grandmother, who walked all 72 holes at the Royal Queensland course with him as a spectator despite having recently undergone chemotherapy.
"I can't believe she did it," he said. "Everyone at the start of the week was telling her to pace herself. It's pretty amazing and definitely inspiring."
Smith announced in August that he has joined the Saudi Arabian-funded LIV Golf series.
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