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Cameron Smith felt the rumble of the crowd in his feet after his all-Australian Ripper GC won first-ever LIV teams playoff in Adelaide

Adelaide lived through LIV’s first Watering Hole hole-in-one, but the energy that created was nothing on the breakaway tour’s team playoff win by four Aussies riding an unforgettable wave.

Russell GouldRussell Gould
@gouldynews
8 min read
February 7, 2025 - 4:30PM
NewsWire
Cameron Smith, Marc Leishman, Lucas Herbert, and Matt Jones celebrate winning the playoff in Adelaide. Picture: Brenton Edwards / AFP
Cameron Smith, Marc Leishman, Lucas Herbert, and Matt Jones celebrate winning the playoff in Adelaide. Picture: Brenton Edwards / AFP

Cameron Smith paints the picture like a seasoned storyteller, vivid imagery and feelings that he can’t, and won’t, quickly forget.

The air was “heavy”, he said, and he could feel the “rumble” of the enormous crowd, boisterous, loud and fuelled by a full, sunny Sunday of consumption focused on a common enemy.

They had come together, the golfers, the masses, surrounding all vantage points from tee to green on the 18th hole at The Grange Golf Club for a unique even in Adelaide, unseen before, not even amid all the bold innovations LIV Golf had thrust upon the new landscape.

It was a playoff, but not between two players, between two teams.

Four men enter, two men leave sort of thing, and this Sunday showdown was giving off total Thunderdome vibes, with Smith’s all-Australian Ripper GC, an outfit quickly rising to prominence on the home stage, taking on the South African Stinger GC in what felt as close to a cage as a single, 450m long golf hole could.

Cameron Smith tees off in front of the massive crowd in Adelaide. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images
Cameron Smith tees off in front of the massive crowd in Adelaide. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images

Years of sporting rivalry across cricket and rugby on the international stage came to a wild head at the normally subdued and refined Adelaide club.

Louis Oosthuizen, a major winner, a former world No.4 experienced in final day stoushes, recalled some “below the belt” comments from the crowd, which was six and seven deep around him and playing partner Dean Burmeister everywhere they moved, but he expected nothing less.

“If you’re playing the home team and in a situation like that, you just need to know that you’re going to get all of that,” he said from Florida, 10 months after the event, preparing for his return.

“And I think if it was in South Africa, and we were in a playoff against anyone else, I think it’s going to be pretty similar things.”

The result, after Oosthuizen missed a putt for victory on the first trip down the 18th and all headed back for another go, was an unforgettable Australian win, aided by a blown bunker shot from Burmeister, heckled so much he played his second shot out of the greenside trap before the crowd was close to even LIV levels of quiet, which allowed Smith to tap in for a winning bogey.

It prompted what the moustachioed, mulleted, major winner from Brisbane called “probably one of the best nights that I’ve had celebrating” because of what it took to make it happen.

Marc Leishman, Lucas Herbert, Cameron Smith and Matt Jones go nuts on stage in Adelaide. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images
Marc Leishman, Lucas Herbert, Cameron Smith and Matt Jones go nuts on stage in Adelaide. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images

THE SUNDAY SURGE

Every LIV event is played with two leaderboards.

There’s an individual title on the line as well as one for the 13 four-man teams, a factor that the majority of, if not all, LIV recruits, particularly Smith, declared at the heart of the decision to ditch access to most other tours and join.

At the second incarnation of the event in Adelaide, however, the winner of the individual event – American Branden Steele – faded quickly from thoughts after he tapped in for victory having outlasted Oosthuizen because the South African’s charge had created a way more enticing spectacle.

Undaunted by what seemed a monster lead for Smith and Ripper GC in the final round, a lead that stretched to six over the Stingers with just three holes to play when Marc Leishman snaked in an earth-rattling putt, Oosthuizen and his teammates went on a tear.

He and Burmeister, Masters champ Charl Schwartzel and Branden Grace combined to shoot a LIV Sunday record of 24-under, four shots better than the Aussie group of Smith, Leishman, Lucas Herbert and Matt Jones.

But the nature of the LIV event, with the quartet split up all over the course, the shotgun start making their finishing holes out of normal whack, made chasing the Aussies down a unique experience.

“I finished No.2 and the last leaderboard I saw was 17th green,” Oosthuizen recalled.

“At that stage, I think we were five behind or six behind even, and I was doing, you know, pretty well.

“So obviously, you look at the team, you look at yourself, and I was doing well. And I knew there were scoring holes coming up.

“So we’re sort of like, right, if you can go one under the next three holes, it would be great. I hit it very close on one, and then I end up making an eight-footer on the second hole.”

A final par set up the first-ever team playoff.

“I was playing with Jonesy (Ripper GC’s Matt Jones) and walked off the green and he said we had a playoff.

“I said, ‘Well, what do you mean we had a playoff’? And he said, they just told him, Cam made bogey somewhere (on his final hole). Charl, myself and Dean made birdies, and my putt was for the playoff.

“It was a most bizarre thing. If we were one behind or something, it would have been a little bit more dramatic and I would have wanted to know what’s going on, but it was quite a bizarre finish.”

Smith shakes hands with Louis Oosthuizen and Dean Burmester on the 18th hole. Picture: Jon Ferrey/LIV Golf
Smith shakes hands with Louis Oosthuizen and Dean Burmester on the 18th hole. Picture: Jon Ferrey/LIV Golf

Smith said, outside of scattered leaderboards, having real-time updates would have been handy.

“I think there’s enough leaderboards out there, but I think there’s also so much stuff going on around the greens, and it’s so busy that you almost kind of forget to look,” he said.

“It’s only when you’re walking down the fairway where you’re like, ‘I wonder what the boys are’? because I actually remember, we were probably six or seven shots ahead, like three or four holes to go.

“It would have been nice to have something.”

DECISION TIME

From four players to two, Smith and Oosthuizen had to pick their playoff best.

Herbert and Leishman had both shot the best rounds of the day for Ripper, each carding a 65, crucial scores to secure the playoff,

Smith had been shaky with his driver in a two-under Sunday round of 70, which included a bogey on the 18th hole, the playoff hole.

But for the 2022 British Open champ, the decision was clear.

“I remember not feeling great and then the conversation, the biggest thing I remember was the conversation I was having with myself of ‘am I going to pick myself’?” Smith said.

“It was a weird experience, not having been through that before and then having to pick someone and not really knowing how it’s gonna pan out.

“I feel like it’s kind of my team, so I want to be responsible.

“I didn’t want to kind of put that on anyone else. I know Herbie played some great golf on Sunday to kind of get us in that spot, that was kind of going through my mind, but at the same time, I wanted to be responsible for what was happening.”

Smith played in the World Cup and Presidents Cup with Leishman, won the Zurich Classic together before they joined LIV, so that partnership was always going to happen.

Oosthuizen, who ran second to Steele, picked himself and he chose Burmeister over Schwartzel, who shot the best Sunday round of eight-under 64, because he’d won the previous event in Miami.

ENTER THE CAULDRON

Put bluntly, Smith said “It was nuts”.

As golfing scenarios go, the first and second playoff holes produced scenes unlike anything before in Australian golf especially but maybe, outside of the Ryder Cup, anywhere.

If you could find one of the 20,000 people lining the 18th hole, behind the tee, both sides of the shortish by modern standards fairway, four and five deep around the green and in the grandstand behind it, keen to cheer on the Stingers, it was only one.

The Watering Hole had emptied to join the masses, and Smith felt them all.

“It was nuts. It was something that I’ve never even been close to experiencing before,” he said.

“It was loud, it felt like the air was kind of heavy, it was really, really weird and just unlike anything else.

“It almost felt like a bit of a rumble, like you almost felt it in your feet.”

The golf swing is unlike most sporting actions, with so much involved.

It only takes the slightest deviation from what’s required to execute the perfect swing and things can go seriously wrong.

That’s what happened with Smith’s first drive. He missed the fairway, put his second in the bunker. But a missed birdie putt from a more accurate Oosthuizen that skimmed the edge ensured clutch par putts made by the Aussies were enough for a take two

The locals were letting the visitors know all about it too, the crowd that is. Decorum was out the window and the cheering would have been heard suburbs away.

“There was one incident where they said something, you know, under the belt, something about Dean’s family,” Oosthuizen said.

“I think if it was two other teams playing, if it was us versus the Ironheads, or whoever, it wouldn’t have been that bad. But look, we grew up with cricket. We grew up with rugby. We know all those type of things.”

Smith gave the slightest fist pump after his first close-out, possibly underselling the situation.

“There was so much kind of adrenaline and pressure and stuff that atmosphere was crazy,” he said.

“I do remember holing that putt, kind of tapped in, which was nice, and then just the crowd roar.”

TAKE TWO

Leishman almost landed his second tee shot in the same spot as his first, right edge of the fairway, and Smith, finally, found the short stuff too.

Wedges in for both, Leishman closer than his partner who was just short of the green, a nervy approach.

But both the South Africans, went in the bunker behind the pin. Burmeister took two shots to get out. The crowd was singing “goodbye” as he made a five, the same as his skipper, just before Leishman made par and Smith, nervously, took his two putts from about two metres to nail a famous win and elicit an almighty roar.

“I think the initial thing is relief. Every time when you win, you just feel like, OK, it’s over now, we can relax because it is very high strung, for sure, particularly when you’re playing for two guys that are sitting over there watching you that have played some really good golf as well,” Smith said.

“It’s very pressure packed, but once it’s all done, definitely a sigh of relief comes in.

“It was definitely an experience that I won’t forget.”

The fever-pitch atmosphere was different for Oosthuizen too, but not an excuse, given it was the sort of scenario, sort of, that LIV was out to create.

“We had our chances on the first playoff hole, we had two putts and walking back to the tee we both were like, we could feel it was against us, so we needed to really focus on this one,” he said.

“But it didn’t really matter. It’s just the way those things go. You had your chances and you didn’t take it.”

It’s ours … Leishman, Smith, Jones and Herbert with the spoils. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images
It’s ours … Leishman, Smith, Jones and Herbert with the spoils. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images

PARTY TIME

Smith partied so hard after he won the Australian PGA in his home town of Brisbane in 2023 that he was completely out of sorts the next week at the Australian Open.

But amped after a win unlike any other, there was no way he was not going to celebrate in Adelaide.

“We had a few drinks in the clubhouse and then we went back to the hotel. We went out, just had had a few more beers,” he said.

“I think we went to the Strathmore and we were upstairs, and we had all our mates there and it ended up being quite a big turnout.

“We had a really good night. It was probably one of the best nights that I’ve had celebrating.”

The Ripper GC team wasn’t done winning, going on to win the 2024 team championship in Dallas, earning a Mad Monday party in Florida and capping off a monster year.

Originally published as Cameron Smith felt the rumble of the crowd in his feet after his all-Australian Ripper GC won first-ever LIV teams playoff in Adelaide

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Original URL: https://www.themercury.com.au/news/breaking-news/cameron-smith-felt-the-rumble-of-the-crowd-in-his-feet-after-his-allaustralian-ripper-gc-won-firstever-liv-teams-playoff-in-adelaide/news-story/a10a83770c8abd21e71eb2ef28a9a567