Cameron Smith brought the mullet, Marc Leishman brought the music and by week’s end the Aussie pair had brought the heat to secure a playoff victory at the PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
The teams event that mixes fourball and foursomes formats during the four days reached a pulsating conclusion as Smith and Leishman went head-to-head over the closing stages with South African pair and Presidents Cup teammates Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel.
A two-shot lead through 11 holes became a one-shot deficit after bogeys at the 13th and 15th, but Leishman’s chip-in birdie after Smith found the water at the par-4 16th once again brought the two teams level.
They traded bogeys and pars on the closing two holes but when Oosthuizen flared his tee shot into the water on the first playoff hole, Smith and Leishman successfully navigated the 18th hole to claim a win with special significance given that it came on Anzac Day.
“I was actually speaking to my old man last night and he said it’s a really good omen for us guys being up the top of the leaderboard on Anzac Day,” Smith said. “I know my family went out to a dawn service and paid their respects, so maybe we have got a bit of good karma out there because of that.
“Obviously we had three Aussies in our little crew and my caddie ‘Pinner’ [Sam Pinfold] is a New Zealander, so the Anzac spirit definitely held up today.”
Although the Olympic competition is a 72-hole individual strokeplay event, Leishman and Smith want to team up as part of Team Australia in Tokyo.
“Something I never ever thought I would do would be have a chance to win an Olympic medal,” Leishman said. “I’m excited about the chance of being there and contending for that.”
Photography by Getty images: Mike Ehrmann, Harry How
