Neergaard-Petersen Lifts the Stonehaven Cup

Image courtesy of Golf Australia

Neegaard-Petersen Stares Down Cam Smith to Win Crown Australian Open

What an amazing four days at Royal Melbourne and the Crown Australian Open. Over 100,000 people came through the gates to watch some of the stars of world golf and of course the biggest star Rory McIlroy. Whilst McIlroy didn’t really feature on Sunday there can be no doubt about his influence on the tournament and the number of spectators who turned up to watch the golf.

In the end it was young Danish star Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen who held the Stonehaven Cup as the Champion. Coming down the 18th it looked as though Cam Smith had one hand on the trophy after Neergard-Petersen put his approach shot in the grassy island that sits inside the bunkers to the right of the 18th green. Smith put his approach on the green albeit some 40 feet away with a difficult two putt.

The Dane had an awful lie and had to come over the bunker to a pin about 10 feet onto the green. He pulled off an amazing chip to land just over the bunker and leave himself with 15 feet for par.

Smith was then the first to putt and he snaked his putt across the 18th green and passed the hole by about 5 feet. Neergaard-Petersen then drained his 15 footer to put the pressure right back on Smith who had to hole his putt to keep the tournament alive. Smith’s putt slid by the cup and the 26 year old Dane had his first DP World Tour win and was the Australian Open champion. Neergard-Petersen later described his up and down on 18 as a one in a hundred chance.

In his press conference Neergaard-Petersen thanked Ozzie pro David Micheluzzi who had invited him down to Melbourne to play some sandbelt golf in the lead up to the tournament. He said “…as for David Micheluzzi who invited me down to spend half a week down there before last week, it was unbelievable. One thing is I really enjoy his company just being around him, but to play great golf courses and kind of get a feel for what it could be like this week was fantastic”

When asked about his motivation to come to Australia and play the Australian Open he said “And it was one of the things, there was a lot of people that asked me why I decided to go down here and that being able to have a chance to put my name on such a historic trophy was definitely one of them and just can't wait to be back and try and defend.” And on having his name on the Stonehaven Cup the new champion went on to say ”Yeah, I mean to win my first event and for it to be the Australian Open, which is such an historic event, I think I asked you how it's one of the oldest tournaments in the world, the national open of Australia. Just a quick peek on some of the names that are on there and to be able to put my name among those names is unbelievable.”

This year for the first time the winner gets an invite to the Masters in April. Neergaard-Petersen was asked what this meant to him – “It means the world to me. I think growing up the Masters, it wasn't the first tournament that I watched, but as soon as I watched that tournament, it was the first event that I was like, if I one day be a professional golfer, that's the event I want to play. So it's a dream come true and I can't wait for April.”

And like most things in golf there are more stories than just the winner. As well as the Masters invite for the winner the top three not already exempt, receive invites to play The Open next year at Royal Birkdale. So this was the prize for Si Woo Kim (3rd), Michael Hollick (4th) and Adam Scott (5th).

And then there is the ongoing battle for the OOM on the PGA Australasia. Following the Australian Open there is no change at the top with Chris Wood at the top followed by Will Florimo and James Marchesani. The big mover was Cameron Smith who moved up 156 places to 4th however he unlikely to play again in the Ozzie season so isn’t going to affect the top three places.

So ends what has been one of the best weeks in Australian Golf in decades. The crowds came, the golf course was spectacular, and the players produced a thrilling finish to the 108th Australian Open Championship.