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Cameron Smith spent the weekend at the Sony Open in Hawaii chasing leader Brendan Steele and finally ran him down with a 72nd-hole birdie that forced a playoff, which Smith won on the first extra hole at Waialae Country Club. It was his first individual PGA Tour victory.
While Smith played steady golf on the closing holes, making an 8-foot birdie on the final hole in regulation to force the playoff, Steele’s game came apart down the stretch. Leading by two strokes with two holes to play, Steele bogeyed the par-3 17th then failed to birdie the par-5 finishing hole after hitting a wayward second shot, giving Smith the opportunity he needed.
It was a bizarre finish. In the final threesome, Steele and Smith (along with Kevin Kisner) needed nearly 40 minutes to play the 72nd hole and with the chance to close out a victory, Steele could not do it. Had the playoff not ended when it did, darkness would have forced Smith and Steele to return to Waialae in the morning to resume the playoff.
For Smith, a 26-year-old Australian, it was a monumental week in multiple ways.
Not only did he finally win a PGA Tour event (he shared the 2017 Zurich Classic of New Orleans title with partner Jonas Blixt), Smith also was part of a group of players who pledged to donate $500 to relief efforts for the Australian wildfires for every birdie they made during the tournament (Smith made 21 birdies).
“I hope that just brings a little bit of joy for some people going through some tough times,” Smith said after winning the playoff with a par on the first extra hole.
Smith has been a quietly consistent performer on the PGA Tour but hadn’t had a breakthrough week. A two-time winner of the Australian PGA Championship, Smith was a key member of the International Presidents Cup team in December and rolled into the Sony Open having hardly taken a break from working on his game during the holidays.
“It’s been one I wanted to tick off for a long time. To finally say I’ve won an event by myself is quite cool,” Smith said.
For Steele, the disappointment was enormous.
“Everything that could go wrong went wrong today,” he said.
Ranked 45th in the world as 2018 dawned, Steele had fallen to 403rd entering the Sony Open, an event he had played just once in his previous nine years on tour. Steele’s last individual top-10 finish on tour had come at the 2018 Waste Management Phoenix Open, and he ranked 171st in FedEx Cup points last season.
The 36-year-old Californian said the birth of his daughter in 2017 made him reluctant to leave home and the effect was seen in his performance. Additionally, Steele said he made some changes in his swing that had negative results.
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