The Ripper GC (-11) led by Cameron Smith and including Lucas Herbert, Matt Jones and Marc Leishman have been crowned team champions of the 2024 LIV Golf season after winning this weekend in the grand final held in Dallas. On a Sunday turned into an endurance race in which up to three of the four teams fighting for the title managed to lead the standings, it was the Australians who best handled the final moments with a stellar performance from all their players.
Herbert, who made a double bogey on a par five and one more bogey, redeemed himself with four birdies in his last five holes, six in total for his round, to deliver 69 strokes. Jones finished his round with two birdies in his last three flags to contribute with a 70. And Leishman, despite not having his best afternoon, contributed another 70 to the final result. But the glory will be for Cam Smith, star of the stellar match against Dustin Johnson and his 4Aces (-8), who with a 68 and five birdies confirmed his team’s victory.
On the par five of hole 17, when the tension could be cut with a knife, he boldly played with the driver from the fairway on his second shot. And although he didn’t catch the green, he did make a recovery putt of two meters to sign the definitive birdie that practically sentenced the tournament. He only needed the par on the 18 to end the fight, although it wasn’t even necessary because DJ sent his ball to the water pushing this Team Championship in Dallas to a deflated ending after an afternoon full of emotions.
Cam Smith gives @rippergc_ a 2 shot lead on 11-under heading to the 18th 😤#LIVGolf pic.twitter.com/A82HVG6UMJ
— LIV Golf (@livgolf_league) September 22, 2024
The IronHeads GC (-8), last in the general team standings during the regular season, were close to causing an upset. For much of the round they led the standings to everyone’s surprise, especially the organisers, who a victory for the team of Kevin Na, Danny Lee, Scott Vincent and Jinichiro Kozuma would probably have forced them to reconsider the format in which the team champion of the season on the tour is decided. A mistake by Na and a three-putt by Kozuma prevented them from fighting it out to the end, although they sealed a splendid tied second place that could have been solo if the putt of the golfer from Las Vegas on the 18 had not stopped millimetres from the cup.
We will never know what would have happened if instead of John Catlin, who finished with 70 strokes on his Sunday dressed in blue with the Legion XIII (-6), Jon Rahm could have played. But the truth is that the team of the champion from Barrika, who flirted with fighting to win at the start of the last round thanks to a great Tyrrell Hatton, deflated too soon and missed the character and golf of the Spaniard. Their fourth place seems little reward for what they showed throughout the season, but that’s the team format of LIV Golf.
CLUTCH PUTT 🔥
Lucas Herbert gives @rippergc_ the lead on 10-under 👀#LIVGolf pic.twitter.com/7P3lSOBVJX
— LIV Golf (@livgolf_league) September 22, 2024
The big prize of 14 million dollars, 10% for each player and the remaining 60% for the team, is therefore for the Ripper GC. The 4Aces and the IronHeads will take seven million dollars each, 10% for each player and the rest for the teams. The same formula for the four million that the Legion XIII rescues in this final in which the squads that managed to win yesterday their semi-final crosses fought for the first four positions of the final general standings adding the strokes of all their players in stroke play mode.
The Stinger GC (-15) were fifth. And the Fireballs GC (-14) of the Spaniards, curiously both teams with lower results than those of the first four classified, settled for the sixth place after having had the Australians who have achieved the final victory on the ropes yesterday. Sergio García pulled the cart today with a round of 66 strokes, by 68 of Ancer, 69 of Chacarra, who may be saying goodbye to LIV, and 71 of Puig. Their global prize will be three million dollars, with the same distribution conditions as the rest.
The big blow of the day and perhaps of the week was given by the Smash GC, who after arriving in Dallas in the fourth place of the general standings after the regular season, were eliminated in the quarterfinals and today saw how their captain, Brooks Koepka, made no less than 80 strokes, the worst card of the Sunday in the whole tournament. If there was any doubt, it became quite clear that the West Palm Beach native, after Friday’s defeat, cared little to nothing about what happened the rest of the weekend…
