An Instagram video doing the rounds has added a fresh twist to Cameron Smith’s gut-wrenching finish at the 2025 Crown Australian Open – with what appears to be a tournament greenkeeper attempting the five-footer Smith missed that would have forced a playoff.
RELATED: Cam Smith narrowly misses putt to force playoff as Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen wins at Royal Melbourne
Smith, and much of Australia, was left shattered on Sunday when the Ripper GC captain pushed his par putt on the 72nd hole at Royal Melbourne. Moments earlier, the popular Queenslander had buried a huge birdie on the par-5 17th and then striped his drive down 18, setting up what looked like a golden chance to take Denmark’s Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen to extra holes.
But after a cautious approach to a right-edge pin guarded by bunkers, Smith left himself a treacherous long birdie try that stopped five feet away. Meanwhile, Neergaard-Petersen produced one of the great escapes – a delicate flop from gnarly rough over a bunker to a tucked flag before calmly draining a 12-footer for par and a closing 70 to finish at 15-under.
Smith needed just one more putt to extend the championship. Instead, he watched it slide past the left edge, signing for a 69 and a 14-under total.
Now, in a clip gaining traction on social media, a man dressed in Royal Melbourne-Australian Open-branded clothing and workman boots, steps up to the exact same spot late in the evening and gives the putt a go. The video – clearly light-hearted but laced with the sting of what might have been – shows the man spruiking “This is what Cam Smith should have done to win the tournament” before he goes on to drain the putt with arrogance.
Watch it here:
“Is it really that hard?” he leaves us to ponder.
To be fair, it’s a nice putting stroke from the young lad, Blundstones and all!
Whether the greenkeeper made the putt on his first attempt? Well, let’s just say the internet already has its theories.
