A spectacular tournament deserved a spectacular ending, and so the 2025 Australian Open got what it deserved.<\/p>\n
Just not the outcome its fans really wanted.<\/p>\n
In a stunning 72nd-hole reversal, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen got up-and-down from improbable territory in long grass right of the green \u2014 and then Cameron Smith three-putted for bogey from the other edge of the green, handing Neergaard-Petersen his first DP World Tour victory in the process.<\/p>\n
Thousands and thousands from a sellout crowd ringed the final green as Smith and RNP came up the last all tied, but after Neergaard-Petersen\u2019s approach shot sailed right, into jail, Smith found the green and placed himself squarely in the driver\u2019s seat. It would have marked a storybook ending to Smith\u2019s 2025; this is the first cut he\u2019s made in eight non-LIV starts this year. Instead it marked a massive step in the right direction but a particularly harsh way to come up short, too.<\/p>\n
Instead Neergaard-Petersen has his own perfect way to finish 2025; just a year after playing (and winning) the HotelPlanner Tour, he\u2019s played well enough to earn a PGA Tour card for 2026 and now his maiden victory on the DPWT, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo get the win here at my final event of the year was the only thing missing from a perfect year. I\u2019m so happy,\u201d he said in a post-round interview.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll have more to say about this glorious golf tournament, but in the meantime here are a few notes from Royal Melbourne.<\/p>\n
-With the win Neergaard-Petersen also qualifies for the Masters; this is the first year the Australian Open has been given a berth and he took full advantage.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means the world. The Masters is the event I\u2019ve grown up watching so many times, just dreaming of playing it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
-He\u2019s also the first Dane to win the Australian Open.<\/p>\n
-His winning putt was\u00a0remarkable. A big-breaker hit with confidence and perfect speed.<\/p>\n
-Smith\u2019s three-putt was understandable, if regrettable; he was traversing the final green from miles away, and his first putt broke a ridiculous amount.<\/p>\n
-The birdie putt Smith holed at No. 17 to stay tied was really good stuff.<\/p>\n
-Three players (Si Woo Kim, Michael Hollick) to earn a spot in the 2026 Open Championship. That\u2019s massive for Hollick, who has never played a major championship. It\u2019s also massive for Scott, who is now in line to play all four majors for the 25th season in a row. Preposterous streak.<\/p>\n
-Rory McIlroy\u2019s week was clearly meaningful to the man himself as well as to the thousands who trailed him \u2019round Royal Melbourne. Only fitting, then, that he finish with a flourish, birdying Nos. 17 and 18 to go out on a high note.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been absolutely amazing,\u201d McIlroy said post-round. \u201cI\u2019ve been excited to come back down here for a while.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously it\u2019s been over 10 years since I played in the Australian Open and I guess just look the scenes out there this week, the crowds, the golf course, they were absolutely incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Good news: he\u2019ll be back next year.<\/p>\n
We will be, too.<\/p>\n
This article originated on Golf.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A spectacular tournament deserved a spectacular ending, and so the 2025 Australian Open got what it deserved. Just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[21399,116152,5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-306596","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-australian-open","9":"tag-cameron-smith","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}