Finals day at the LIV Team Championship in Dallas was a tense afternoon of drama as, with a couple to play, three teams were still in contention to land the $14M prize. Cam Smith led his Ripper GC to the promised land, birdieing the 17th to give his team breathing space heading to the last. They take the honours having come into the week as third seeds. A -11 cumulative score sealed the Team Championship by three from Dustin Johnson’s Four Aces GC and Kevin Na’s giant killing Iron Heads who tie second.
“It’s so good … not only great golfers but they’re better people and I think that’s what being a Ripper is all about,” Smith said shortly after his teammates doused him in champagne on the 18th green. “To have those guys out there today to lean on, there was something telling me that we were going to be alright.” Asked about the support his all-Australian team has had back home and throughout the season he said, “Absolutely. The event down there has been amazing. We’ve got great support. We’re in Dallas, Texas, at the moment, and the amount of Ripper hats that I see around is pretty cool. We’ve got the best fans and the best traveling fans. They’re everywhere. It’s pretty cool to be part of that.”
The team stroke play element saw changes at the top all day and in Tier One, the bottom seeded Iron Heads looked on course to achieve an all-time shock for much of the afternoon, having dispatched both Smash GC and the Crushers over the previous two rounds. They traded top spot with ’22 Team Championship winners, the Four Aces and Smith’s Ripper GC all afternoon. The Australian put on a captain’s performance on the final day, going around in four-under and making a pivotal birdie on 17 to close out the season long battle on -11, after Herbert’s birdie on the first gave them the lead. All four Aussies were under-par today in a complete team performance with Jones and Leishman both carding two-under to go with Herbert’s minus three. The captain-less Legion XIII couldn’t replicate yesterday’s heroics and despite a 68 from Hatton, they could only manage a six-under to take fourth place.
Tier two saw both the Fireballs and Stinger rue their semi-final defeats. Both teams final scores would have been enough to take overall victory had they made the top tier on Sunday. A -15 for Stinger saw them take fifth spot after a seven-under from Grace and a six-under from Schwartzel. Fireballs’ -14 too would have taken the laurel, but they settle for sixth overall thanks to a captain’s six-under for Garcia. Paul Casey was best of the Crushers on a day where even their skipper DeChambeau couldn’t light the touch paper. They take seventh ahead of a Hyflyers team whose captain, Mickelson struggled his way around on four-over.
The five team third tier was topped off by the triple captained Majesticks on five-under. Horsefield was the best of the bunch [not a co-captain], with a three-under. They secure ninth spot just one shot clear of Torque, for whom Sebastian Muñoz shot round of the day on -8. Martin Kaymer’s Cleeks GC take the 10th spot on two-under, while both the Range Goats and Smash had days to forget, carding four, and twelve-over-par respectively. Graeme McDowell was best of the group for Smash with Gooch on minus one for their day. They round off 12th and 13th on the final standings as the dust settles after a frantic Finals weekend.
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