St. Andrews, Scotland — Cameron Smith charged his method into historical past on the Previous Course, a Sunday stunner at St. Andrews that despatched the Australian to his first main victory by overcoming Rory McIlroy to win the British Open.
The stage was set for McIlroy to finish his eight-year drought within the majors and cap off every week of celebration on the residence of golf within the one hundred and fiftieth Open.
Smith stole the present by working off 5 straight birdies to begin the again 9 and delivering extra clutch moments on the finish. His 8-under 64 was the bottom last spherical by a champion within the 30 occasions golf's oldest champion has been performed at St. Andrews.
Smith received by one shot over Cameron Younger, who holed a 15-foot eagle putt on the ultimate gap. It wasn't sufficient, and neither was something McIlroy may muster.
He could not make a putt early. He could not hit it shut sufficient late. His final good likelihood was a 15-foot birdie try on the scary Highway Gap at No. 17, and it narrowly missed to the left.
Smith, who saved par on the seventeenth with a 10-foot putt, was on the entrance of the 18th inexperienced together with his tee shot. From 80 toes away, his tempo up the slope and towards the cup was near excellent, leaving him a tap-in birdie to complete at 20-under 268.
Smith matched the main championship file to par, final reached by Dustin Johnson within the 2020 Masters held in November.
McIlroy wanted eagle to tie him, and his putt via the Valley of Sin had no likelihood. He missed the birdie and wound up with a 70 to complete third.
Smith is the primary Australian to win at St. Andrews since Kel Nagle in 1960, when he topped a rising American star named Arnold Palmer, the individuals's selection.
That is what McIlroy is now, and all day there was an power alongside the humps and hollows of the Previous Course, all of them ready to have a good time McIlroy as an Open champion at St. Andrews.
He gave them little to cheer — two birdies, 16 pars, extra disappointment.