[Photo: Getty Images]
Cameron Smith missed a short putt to take the Australian Open into a playoff at Royal Melbourne after Denmark’s Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen made a sublime par save to lift the Stonehaven Cup.
Major winner Smith made a crucial birdie putt on the par-5 17th to stay tied for the lead before a brilliant drive down the 18th fairway and a safe approach shot long to a pin on the right.
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Neergaard-Petersen’s second shot flared right and short of the greenside bunkers and from a tricky lie in thick rough he flopped the ball over a bunker to a tucked pin. Neergaard-Petersen drained a 12-footer that proved to be the winning par putt, finishing at 15-under-par 269. Smith was second 14-under (270).
Smith had a treacherous long birdie putt that settled five feet from the hole and when he stepped up to attempt it, it was to force a playoff. He missed it left and was visibly devastated.
It was Neergaard-Petersen’s first victory on the DP World Tour.
More to come…