BRISBANE, Australia — Australian Elvis Smylie shot a 4-under 67 to win the 54-hole BMW Australian PGA Championship on Sunday by two photographs after a remaining spherical shootout along with his compatriot and former mentor Cameron Smith.
Smylie completed on 14-under 199, two forward of Smith who had a 2-under, final-round 69. Smith’s LIV tour teammate Mark Leishman and Australian Athony Quayle shared third place on 11 beneath on the par-71 Royal Queensland.
Heavy rain showers and an unplayable course on Friday pressured the second spherical to be deserted and made the joint Australasian PGA and DP World Tour occasion a 54-hole match.
5 years in the past, Smylie, the son of former Australian tennis professional Liz Smylie. received the Cameron Smith Scholarship which allowed him to spend every week at Smith’s Florida dwelling the place he was capable of be taught to stay and follow as a PGA Tour skilled.
Now 22, Smylie began Sunday’s remaining spherical tied atop the leaderboard with Smith at 10 beneath par.
Smith was the 2022 Open winner at St. Andrews and beforehand received the Australian PGA in 2017, 2018 and 2022. Smylie had a breakthrough win in final month’s West Australian Open.
The pair traded birdies till the sixth gap when there was a two-shot turnaround when Smylie birdied and Smith bogeyed. Smylie, who led after a primary spherical 65, had 4 birdies in his first seven holes and performed his outward 9 in 4-under 32, turning at 14 beneath.
He had good ups and downs beneath strain on the par 4 tenth and twelfth holes, utilizing his three wooden to bunt the ball onto the greens from shut vary.
With a bogey on the ninth gap, Smith turned in 35, having dropped again right into a second place tie at 11-under with Quayle, Mark Leishman and Australia David Micheluzzi.
Smith had one other bogey on the par-4 14th which dropped him again to 10 beneath whereas Quayle completed with an 8-under 63 to take an early clubhouse lead at 11 beneath.
Smylie was beneath strain on the par-5 fifteenth when he hit his second effectively to the left of the inexperienced. Once more he scrambled to avoid wasting par whereas Smith birdied to maneuver again to 11 beneath, reducing the result in three photographs.
Smith trimmed Smylie’s result in two when he holed out from off the inexperienced for birdie on the par-3 seventeenth, successful a big cheer from the gang on the match’s occasion gap. Smylie’s birdie putt from six ft slipped previous.
Smylie held his nerve when he put his tee shot on the 18th into gentle tough with the broad trunk of a tree between him and the inexperienced 186 meters away. He curled his across the tree, however right into a greenside bunker.
Smylie performed a nerveless shot from the sand to a few ft and holed out for par, ending with 11 consecutive pars. He managed to rise up and down from precarious positions six instances on the again 9.
“It’s a dream come true,” Smylie mentioned. “I received’t overlook at the present time enjoying with Cam and (Leishman).
“My brief sport was nice; I positively saved myself.”
The Australian PGA is the primary occasion of the 2025 European tour season.
Subsequent week, lots of the identical gamers will journey to Melbourne for the Australian Open, additionally on the European Tour. It’s being performed concurrently with the Girls’s Australian Open at famed sandbelt programs Kingston Heath and Victoria
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25753043/1130191132.jpg?w=120&resize=120,86&ssl=1 "Halftime Scorching Takes: The Celtics would possibly’ve offered their soul for that Jaylen Brown heater")
