{"id":334953,"date":"2025-12-07T11:37:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T11:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/334953\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T11:37:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T11:37:08","slug":"neergaard-petersen-wins-australian-open-crown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/334953\/","title":{"rendered":"Neergaard-Petersen wins Australian Open crown"},"content":{"rendered":"

A gutted Cameron Smith has come up just short in his bid for a coveted maiden Australian Open title as Denmark’s Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen made an up-and-down for the ages on the final hole at Royal Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/p>\n

The pair were tied at 15 under coming to the par-4 18th on Sunday and it looked as though Smith was in the box seat when he landed his second shot on the green.<\/p>\n

Neergaard-Petersen blocked his approach right and into the long rough between the bunkers.<\/p>\n

But he conjured a miracle chip to 15 feet and nervelessly drained the par putt.<\/p>\n

His Australian rival could do no better than three-putt from long range for bogey, allowing the Dane to triumph by a single shot.<\/p>\n

Neergaard-Petersen had such a strong debut season on the DP World Tour that he secured his PGA Tour card for 2026.<\/p>\n

Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen of Denmark poses with the Stonehaven Cup.\u00a0Photo by Josh Chadwick\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

“It’s hard, I’m really at a loss for words — it’s been a battle all day,” said the 26-year-old.<\/p>\n

“You know, even from the outside, sometimes you can look calm, but there was a storm inside all day today.<\/p>\n

“But I managed to just keep battling, and then to get it up and down from there, to make that putt on the last.”<\/p>\n

The third member of the final group, Korean Si Woo Kim, bogeyed the last but held onto outright third spot at 13 under.<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old Smith had a final round of two-under 69, with his long winless streak now dating back to LIV Golf Bedminster in August 2023.<\/p>\n

Smith has won the Australian PGA Championship three times but has made no secret of the fact that — outside the majors — the Australian Open is the title he craves most.<\/p>\n

Smith and Neergaard-Petersen went toe to toe on Sunday’s back nine.<\/p>\n

The Australian went ahead for the first time at the 10th hole, before the Dane levelled it up two holes later.<\/p>\n

Cam Smith misses his par putt on the 18th hole.\u00a0Photo by Josh Chadwick\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Neergaard-Petersen edged back into a one-shot lead at the 13th, only for Smith to tie it up again with a birdie on 14.<\/p>\n

Both birdied the par-5 17th, with Smith making a clutch up and down after flaring his approach shot wide to the right.<\/p>\n

The closest Smith has come to lifting the Stonehaven Cup was at Royal Sydney in 2016, when the Queenslander lost in a playoff to American Jordan Spieth.<\/p>\n

South African Michel Hollick had the low round of the day with a six-under 65 to shoot up the leaderboard to outright fourth at 12 under, a shot clear of Australian Adam Scott.<\/p>\n

After starting the final round right in contention for a second Stonehaven Cup, the 45-year-old Australian never really got going on Sunday as he signed for a one-under 70.<\/p>\n

Tournament drawcard Rory McIlroy had a rollercoaster final day, mixing five birdies with three bogeys in a two-under 69 that left him in a tie for 14th at seven under.<\/p>\n

The Northern Irishman will return to the sandbelt to play the 2026 Australian Open at nearby Kingston Heath.<\/p>\n

Also in the group at seven under was Australian crowd favourite Min Woo Lee, who had a disappointing final round of three-over 74.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A gutted Cameron Smith has come up just short in his bid for a coveted maiden Australian Open…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-334953","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}