Cameron Smith's aggressiveness on the TPC Louisiana's water-lined 16th hole appeared to doom his team's chances of winning the Zurich Classic when his 294-yard drive bounced off an embankment near the green and into the water.<\/p>\n
Smith's teammate, fellow Australian Marc Leishman, then flipped the script with a deft chip.<\/p>\n
Leishman made birdie after a penalty drop in the rough, about 23 feet from the pin, pulling him and Smith into a tie with the South African duo of Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel that wasn't broken until the Aussies won the first playoff hole Sunday.<\/p>\n
"(Smith) hit a really good shot. It was the right club and the right shot, just drifted a little in the wind,\u201d Leishman said. \u201cI was just concentrating on my game and I was lucky enough to be on the up slope.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t the hardest chip in the world, but under the conditions, well, I won\u2019t say it was a must-make, but it was certainly very helpful that it went in.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Australians forced the playoff by shooting a 2-under 70 in alternate-shot play at the PGA Tour's lone regular-season team event for a four-round 268. Oosthuizen and Schwartzel began the round with a one-stroke lead, but shot a 71 with three pars and two bogeys.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really tough," said Smith, whose previous victory came at the Sony Open in Hawaii in 2020. "That back nine was brutal, but we hung in there.\u201d<\/p>\n
It's Smith's third career victory and second at the Zurich, which he won with Jonas Blixt in 2017, the first year New Orleans' PGA Tour stop switched from a traditional individual format to an event featuring 80 two-man teams. That first victory also came in a playoff.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess I\u2019m good at picking good partners," Smith said. "We had such a good week on and off the golf course.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was Smith's best result since tying for second at the pandemic-delayed 2020 Masters last November. It's also was his sixth top 10 since the current tour season started.<\/p>\n
It was Leishman's sixth career victory, his best result since tying for fifth at the Masters this month and his first win since the 2020 Farmers Insurance Open.<\/p>\n
Smith and Leishman each earned $1.07 million for the victory \u2014 a result that also forced Smith to address a promise he'd made to cut his mullet hair style when he won a tournament.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have to apologise to my girlfriend; it\u2019s not going away,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI feel like it\u2019s part of me now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leishman affirmed Smith's decision, noting that Smith "has got a cult following now\u201d because of his hair.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou should hear the fans out there,\u201d Leishman said. \u201cThey\u2019re all over it. It\u2019s awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cameron Smith's aggressiveness on the TPC Louisiana's water-lined 16th hole appeared to doom his team's chances of winning the Zurich Classic when his 294-yard drive […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63245"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63245"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63247,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63245\/revisions\/63247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}