Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images
Smith and his Ripper GC team took home their first LIV Golf Team Championship as they won by three shots.
Cam Smith and the Ripper GC are the 2024 LIV Golf Team Championship winners.
They posted an 11-under overall score to defeat the 4 Aces GC and Iron Heads GC by three shots.
To round out the tier 1 teams is Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII at 6-under.
The all-Australian team performed well on Sunday to claim their first team title.
Smith led the team by posting a 4-under 68 after starting the day with a bogey. From there, the captain recorded five birdies to pace his team.
Justin Herbert shot the second-lowest score at 3-under 69. Matt Jones and Marc Leishman posted 2-under 70 to round out the team.
Smith could not say enough nice things about his squad.
“They’re better people. I think that’s what being a Ripper is all about,” Smith said. “It just so happens that we’re good golfers, too. It’s a good combo. To have those three guys out there today, or six other guys really to lean on trying to get the job done, there was something in me telling me that we would be all right.”
With this victory, the Ripper GC will take home $14 million, which means $8.4 million will go to the team, and each player will take home $1.4 million.
Smith’s squad won back-to-back events earlier this season at LIV Adelaide and LIV Golf Singapore.
“The event down there has been amazing,” Smith said about the Australian event. “We’ve got great support. We’re in Dallas, Texas, at the moment, and the amount of Ripper hats that I see around is pretty cool. We’ve got the best fans and the best traveling fans. They’re everywhere. It’s pretty cool to be part of that.”
The Iron Heads GC, led by Kevin Na, took down Brooks Koepka’s Smash GC in the quarterfinals and Bryson DeChambeau’s top-ranked team in the semis. However, they did not have enough juice to take down Smith and Ripper GC.
Smith and his team held off the 4 Aces from claiming their second LIV Golf Team Championship to give the Saudi-backed league its third different winner at this event.
Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @golf_girl_sl.