Cameron Smith closes with brilliant 66 to claim Players crown

Cameron Smith’s sense of style makes him stand out from the crowd. There’s the mullet hairstyle, and the wispy moustache. In this latest edition of The Players, though, it was his shot-making and putting prowess which separated him from all others as a closing round 66 for a 13-under-par total of 275 in the weather-delayed flagship event on the PGA Tour gave him the biggest win of his career.

A cheque for €3.3 million winged its way into the Australian’s bank account after a remarkable final round for Smith which started with four straight birdies and then featured three bogeys in succession, from the seventh. But he followed up with another hot streak of four straight birdies from the 10th as he navigated a route into a lead which he never relinquished.

As a number of players – Anirban Lahiri, Viktor Hovland and Paul Casey – at times found themselves at the top of the leaderboard, ultimately it was Smith who took control of the richest tournament on tour for an emotional victory in front of family members he hadn’t seen for two years due to the impact of the Covid pandemic.

Smith didn’t make it easy on himself, however, pushing his drive on the 18th into the rough down the right and then over-hitting his second shot into the water in finishing with a bogey. That dropped shot, though, was but a blip in a round that featured no fewer than 10 birdies as he moved to a career-best sixth in the world rankings.

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Lahiri, his closest pursuer, made a brilliant birdie on the 17th, from 12 feet, and needed a birdie on the 18th to force a playoff, but his approach came up marginally short of the green. Needing a chip-in to extend the tournament still further after numerous weather delays, the Indian – using irons given to him by Graeme McDowell – came up just short to claim solo second place.

For Shane Lowry, it turned out to be a rather disappointing finish to a tournament he had lighted up with his ace on the 17th in his third round.

Lowry’s bid to add the PGA Tour’s flagship tournament to a CV which already included a Major – the 2019 Open Championship – and a WGC, the 2015 Bridgestone Invitational, came undone early in his final round with bogeys on the third and sixth to put him on the back foot and into a position of playing an impossible game of catch-up.

To his credit, Lowry completed the remaining 11 holes without dropping another shot – and picked up birdies on the eighth and ninth to turn in 36 and then claimed a further birdie on the Par 5 11th – before then finishing with a bogey on the 18th for a 72 for 282 which left him in tied-13th place.

Séamus Power, who started on the 10th, got off to a flying start to his final round, picking up four birdies inside his opening seven holes, but the infamous 17th proved to be a momentum-stopper: there, the Waterford man’s tee shot found a watery grave in running up a double-bogey five that felt like a sucker punch.

Power ultimately signed for a closing 70 for three-under-par 285 which gave him a tied-34th place finish, but also earned him world ranking points in consolidating his place inside the world’s top-50 with the exemption cut-off point for next month’s Masters just two weeks away. The K Club-attached touring professional has opted to skip this week’s Valspar Championship but will make a debut appearance in next week’s WGC-Dell Technologies Matchplay Championship.

Cast adrift towards the end of the leaderboard prior to teeing up in the final round, Rory McIlroy finally found his game: the Northern Irishman closed out with a final round 66 to join Power on 285.

McIlroy’s bogey-free round featured an eagle on the 11th, his second hole, where he hit a 216 yards approach to three feet, to go with four birdies.

Paul Casey secured third place on his own after a closing 69 for 277, with Kevin Kisner claiming fourth place after also getting into a challenging position heading down the stretch.

Former world number one Dustin Johnson chipped in for an eagle on the ninth, his finishing hole, for a course-record tying 63: “It was a tough week. I just made too many mistakes, from the fairway too. It wasn’t even when I got out of position. I hit too many bad iron shots from the fairway. I’ve got a little bit of work to do still on the game but, obviously, it’s in there. I just need to get it a little bit more consistent.”

Final leaderboard

USA unless stated, Par 72:
275 Cameron Smith (Aus) 69 71 69 66
276 Anirban Lahiri (Ind) 67 73 67 69
277 Paul Casey (Eng) 70 69 69 69
278 Kevin Kisner 68 74 68 68
279 Keegan Bradley 72 71 68 68
280 Doug Ghim 70 70 68 72, Russell Knox (Sco) 71 71 68 70, Harold Varner III 69 69 72 70
281 Adam Hadwin (Can) 72 72 70 67, Viktor Hovland (Nor) 71 73 68 69, Dustin Johnson 69 73 76 63, Sepp Straka (Aut) 69 74 71 67
282 Daniel Berger 67 75 70 70, Tyrrell Hatton (Eng) 70 73 69 70, Russell Henley 69 73 72 68, Max Homa 72 73 71 66, Shane Lowry (Irl) 73 70 67 72, Keith Mitchell 67 72 74 69, Taylor Pendrith (Can) 68 71 74 69, Brendan Steele 73 69 69 71, Erik van Rooyen (Rsa) 71 67 74 70
283 Tommy Fleetwood (Eng) 66 73 72 72, Patton Kizzire 68 76 72 67, Joaquin Niemann (Chi) 67 73 73 70, Kevin Streelman 73 71 66 73
284 Sam Burns 68 69 71 76, Corey Conners (Can) 70 69 75 70, Sergio Garcia (Esp) 71 71 71 71, Sebastian Munoz (Col) 70 73 65 76, Alexander Noren (Swe) 69 75 71 69, Doc Redman 71 70 72 71, Patrick Reed 73 70 68 73, Will Zalatoris 69 71 70 74
285 Abraham Ancer (Mex) 68 71 74 72, Joel Dahmen 70 71 71 73, Tom Hoge 66 71 72 76, Rory McIlroy (N Irl) 73 73 73 66, Pat Perez 70 72 75 68, Ian Poulter (Eng) 73 70 71 71, Séamus Power (Irl) 71 71 73 70, Justin Thomas 72 69 72 72
286 Kramer Hickok 67 75 71 73, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 70 73 69 74, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 69 72 69 76, Scott Stallings 71 75 65 75
287 Adam Long 71 71 75 70, Peter Malnati 70 75 72 70, Maverick McNealy 70 76 70 71, Troy Merritt 74 71 71 71
288 Dylan Frittelli (Rsa) 73 72 73 70, Brice Garnett 67 76 74 71, Aaron Wise 71 74 74 69
289 Branden Grace (Rsa) 71 72 73 73, Jason Kokrak 72 72 71 74
290 Sung Jae Im (Kor) 72 72 70 76, Kyoung-Hoon Lee (Kor) 70 73 76 71, Jon Rahm (Esp) 69 72 72 77, Scottie Scheffler 70 76 68 76, Jimmy Walker 70 73 71 76
291 Denny McCarthy 70 76 73 72, Sam Ryder 69 74 73 75, Michael Thompson 72 73 74 72
292 Chesson Hadley 70 74 71 77, Brian Harman 68 74 75 75, Hank Lebioda 72 70 72 78
293 Hayden Buckley 72 71 76 74, Nick Watney 75 71 75 72
295 Lucas Herbert (Aus) 70 74 75 76, Bubba Watson 73 68 78 76
297 Lee Hodges 72 74 75 76