AVONDALE, La. – Never say you’re sorry.
That is one of the cardinal rules of team golf and one that caddie Matt Kelly ingrained into the head of his boss Marc Leishman and his partner, Cameron Smith, at this week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans, the only two-man team format during the 50 events that make up the PGA Tour 2020-21 season.
Kelly made a special yardage book with a green cover and gold lettering, fittingly the colors of the Australian national flag, and on the front cover stitched the words that became the team’s mantra: “There’s no saying sorry.”
Those words took on extra meaning on Sunday, when Smith steered his tee shot to the left at the par-4 16th hole and it bounced into a pond. Playing an alternate-shot format, Leishman hit next after a penalty stroke and stepped up and chipped in for birdie from 23 feet to regain a share of the lead at 21 under.
WOW!@MarcLeish chips in for birdie on No. 16.
Team Smith/Leishman are now tied for the lead @Zurich_Classic. pic.twitter.com/Y1EQPlRPHT
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 25, 2021
The Aussies needed one extra hole to break the tie with South Africans Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel, winning with a par at the 18th hole after Oosthuizen drove into the water that lines the right side of the hole.
“It was a pretty cool week,” said Smith, who earned his third PGA Tour title, with all three coming in a playoff. “The back nine was brutal and we hung in there and we got it done.”
The Aussies built a two-stroke lead through 11 holes, but it would be a back-and-forth affair as Smith and Leishman made bogeys at Nos. 13 and 15. That combined with a 15-foot birdie putt by Schwartzel at 15 and the South Africans were in the driver seat at 21-under.
Oosthuizen, who has won 14 times around the world, including the 2010 British Open, has never won on U.S. soil and Schwartzel, who hasn’t hoisted a trophy on the PGA Tour since the 2016 Valspar Championship, were trying to join recent winners Jordan Spieth and Hideki Matsuyama in ending victory droughts.
Marc Leishman holds a selfie stick to take a picture of himself and teammate Cameron Smith after winning the 2021 Zurich Classic of New Orleans at TPC Louisiana on April 25, 2021, in Avondale, Louisiana. (Photo: Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
It looked as if the South Africans would coast to the title when Smith’s tee shot at 16 bounced into the pond. But Smith, who won this event in a playoff in 2017 with a different partner, never said sorry and Leishman delivered with the clutch chip in, pumping his right fist and high-fiving with Kelly.
Both teams made bogey at the par-3 17th hole, remaining tied for the lead. Pars at the last meant a final-round 2-under 70 for the Aussies, one better than their South African opponents, and they tied with a 72-hole aggregate of 20-under 268.
The playoff lacked the drama of the final few holes as Oosthuizen pushed his tee shot into the water, sealing their fate.
Zurich Classic: Leaderboard | Photos | Winners’ bags
All week long the mates from Down Under had kept loose and celebrated the infamous mullet of Smith. That included Leishman, who won for the sixth time, giving his partner a pre-tournament trim and pulling a mullet wig that he’d bought from Amazon for $18.99 out of his bag at the first tee Saturday and sporting it for their player introduction to the walk-up tune of Jay Powell’s “The Mullet Song.”
It may have been the funniest first-tee prop since Lee Trevino tossed a rubber snake at Jack Nicklaus before the start of their 18-hole playoff at the 1971 U.S. Open.
Peter Uihlein and Richy Werenski tied for the low round of the day with a 67 to finish alone in third at 19 under.
from Golfweek https://ift.tt/3aC7h4a