Cameron Smith blasts Phil Mickelson for gamesmanship after finalhole heroics keeps team championship hopes alive
Cameron Smith drained a clutch putt on the 18th hole at Trump National’s on Friday to defeat Phil Mickelson’s Hy Flyers GC and seal a semi-finals berth for Punch GC in LIV Golf’s Team Championship.
The Saudi-backed golf league’s final tournament of the the season comprises of twelve teams of four players, with the 48-person field battling it out for cut of the $16 million (AUD$25m) grand prize.
The quarter-final meeting between the all-Australian Punch GC team and the Hy Flyers came down to the very last hole, where this year’s Open champion once again showed his class to clinch victory.
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Australian Marc Leishman beat Matthew Wolff 4&2 in their singles match, but fellow countrymen Matt Jones and Wade Ormsby’s 3&2 loss to Bernd Wiesberger and Cameron Tringale levelled the scores.
However, world No.3-ranked Smith soon edged Mickelson 1up to claim the match-up 2-1.
As captain faced captain, Mickelson rallied on the back nine from two down to draw level with Smith at the final hole.
But after Mickelson missed the fairway on 18, leaving the door open with a bogey to finish his round, Smith executed a 10-foot putt to perfection to clinch the match with a par.
Commentator Arlo White descried the battle as “a match that will be etched into LIV Golf lore”.
Speaking after the round, Smith condemned Mickleson’s slow play, calling out the six-time major-winner’s familiar “gamesmanship”.
“I think Phil maybe had some gamesmanship in there a little bit,” he said.
“He seemed to take forever today. I think we were three or four holes behind, so that was a bit painful.
“But other than that, it was good.”
Punch GC — which was seeded second-last in the field — will now face off against Fireballs GC in the semi-finals on Sunday (AEDT).
Smith will play captain Sergio Garcia, while Leishman faces Carlos Ortiz in singles matches, and Jones and Ormsby take on Abraham Ancer and Eugenio Chacarra.
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