Marc Leishman and Cam Smith play best foursomes of their life in World Cup of Golf final round

It was the best foursomes result Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith had ever had. A fighting 65 playing alternate shot that no one, not even World Cup of Golf winners Belgium, could better.

Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith have a laugh early in the final round. Picture: Michael Klein

It was the best foursomes result Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith had ever had.

Not just at the World Cup, but best ever as they came home at Metropolitan with a fighting 65 playing alternate shot that no one, not even winners Belgium, could better.

The Aussie duo said they had never played in front of home a crowd like it, as the masses rose again and again for birdies that put them within reach of a miracle win.

WORLD CUP: BELGIANS SEE OFF BRAVE AUSSIES

Leishman said he felt it most when Smith holed out from the bunker for a birdie on the 14th hole. The Queenslander had to put it in, because Leishman left his own bunker shot in the sand the shot before.

It was the Aussie team’s seventh birdie for the round, and third in a row. They needed every one though, having started the final day six shots back.

There weren’t enough leaderboards for Leishman to know exactly where they were placed, but with seven birdies in the can, they had to be close.

Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman celebrate a birdie on the second hole.

It wasn’t until the 16th the scale of their challenge was laid out. Leishman saw they were still three behind, so he smashed his drive to 50m short of the green.

Smith then flipped a wedge to three feet, knowing birdie was a must.

But, in a rare lowlight for an otherwise stunning final day fightback, Leishman missed the birdie putt, one later he said he would “like to have back”.

It was a cruel blow, because Belgium made bogey on 15 at the same time. The gap could have been one.

But it was three, which was where it remained.

The Aussies went without a birdie on the final four holes and the near-perfect Belgians rattled home a three on the 18th to collect, literally if not figuratively, the biggest trophy in world golf.

Cameron Smith hits out of a bunker during the World Cup of Golf.

It was an Aussie effort spurred by an emerging friendship between two laidback lacks who plastered smiles across their faces for most of the week.

As a marker for future pairings at next year’s Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne the Aussie duo gave international team captain Ernie Els, who was on course, something positive to mull over too.

“We showed what we could do it as a team and hopefully that’s something Ernie remembers or, you know, hopefully doesn’t have to remember … it’s just, it was really good,’ Smith said.

The younger of the two, Smith felt the call of his country when he splashed that shot in from the sand, and it roused in him a desire to do it again and again.

“I wasn’t expecting to hole it, I just wanted to give Marc a good look at par, and for that to go in, … I haven’t heard a roar like that for a very long time,” he said.

“I want to be back down here next year playing the Presidents Cup and doing the same stuff. I would love it.”

Leishman was nodding his head as Smith said he should already be on Els radar, and said as a dynamic duo, they should be pencilled in for Royal Melbourne next December.

“I think the way we handled Friday would be probably more impressive to Ernie than today. Even just when things weren’t going well, we were still, you know, smiling I guess as much as you could,” he said.

“Yeah, we enjoyed playing with each other. We would love to be doing the same thing at Royal in a year’s time.”