Reigning British Open champion Cameron Smith of Australia won his first LIV Golf Invitational Series title on Sunday, holding off Dustin Johnson and Peter Uihlein down the stretch to win the Chicago Invitational.
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The 29-year-old from Brisbane fired a three-under par 69 to complete on 13-under 203 within the 54-hole shotgun begin occasion at Rich Harvest Farms.
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World quantity three Smith completed with back-to-back birdies, the final from 20 toes, to defeat two-time main winner Johnson and Uihlein by three strokes.
Nine weeks after capturing the Claret Jug at St. Andrews, Cameron Smith stated he wanted a victory to ship a message to critics of his choice to leap from the PGA Tour to the Saudi-backed upstart collection.
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“I think I had to prove to myself and some other people that I’m a great player, that I’m out here to win golf tournaments,” Smith stated.
LIV Golf’s report prize cash has helped lure a number of big-name PGA defections, prompting the PGA to subject indefinite bans on former members and spark an antitrust lawsuit within the United States set for trial in 2024.
Cameron Smith’s PGA Tour departure an enormous blow
Smith’s departure was an enormous blow for the PGA Tour, the place he’d gained the Tournament of Champions in January, The Players Championship in March and his first main title in July at St. Andrews.
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Smith added a $4 million LIV Golf prime prize from a $25 million purse to a 2022 riches haul that features $1.47 million for the Tournament of Champions win, $3.6 million on the Players and $2.5 million on the Open.
Smith took a three-stroke lead after Johnson opened with a bogey on the first.
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Cameron Smith missed a six-foot par putt to bogey the fourth and a poor blast out of a bunker on the sixth led to a different bogey.
Both birdied the par-5 seventh however Smith rolled in a five-foot birdie putt on the eighth and after Johnson made back-to-back bogeys at eight and 9 it was Uihlein who trailed Smith by three on the flip.
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“I didn’t have my best stuff the first eight or nine holes but I struck it nice down the back nine.”
Smith chipped inside inches of the outlet and tapped in for birdie on the par-5 eleventh. He took a bogey on the par-3 sixteenth, lipping out on a brief par putt, however denied his US rivals together with his closing birdies.
“A little disappointed in the way I played,” stated Johnson, who shot 70.
“I hit a lot of good putts. Just nothing would go in the hole.”
Johnson’s 4 Aces gained the group occasion for the fourth consecutive time.
By Garrin Lambley © Agence France-Presse
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