On Monday, Australian Cameron Smith won his fifth and most important title on the PGA Tour - second in 2022 - by winning The Players tournament, considered the fifth largest in golf, and which has been played since Thursday at the TPC Sawgrass, in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, United States.
The 28-year-old Australian golfer won with 275 total strokes (13 under par), one less than Indian Anirban Lahiri, who was leading the competition on Sunday, two margins over Englishman Paul Casey and three ahead of American Kevin Kisner.
For his part, the Australian signed four rounds of 69, 71, 69 and 66, and his victory was not without suspense, since on the last hole he went to the water, although he saved the furniture with a bogey as a lesser evil to finish victorious. Lahiri had options in the 18th, in which he needed a birdie to force a tiebreaker that didn't come.
The Brisbane player won his first title in May 2017, at the New Orleans Classic and alongside Swedish Jonas Blixt, and had to wait more than three years to score the second, at the Hawaiian Open in June 2020. His third title was also won at the New Orleans Classic, in 2021 and teaming up with fellow countryman Marc Leishman. This year he won the Tournament of Champions on 9 January.
In the case of Colombian Juan Sebastián Muñoz, who signed the best round on Sunday and looked like he would fight for the title on the decisive day, he deflated and finished with -3 under the par of the field (285 strokes). After finishing the first half on Monday, the Colombian, with 65 strokes (7 under par).
This result was the best card of the three days of The Players tournament, which puts it only one impact away from the Indian Anirban Lahiri, who leads with a total of 207 (-9). It should be noted that, until that time, Sebastián Muñoz's 65, with seven birdies, had only been matched by American Scott Stallings, who presented the same shots on Monday, but with eight birdies and one bogey.
The Norwegian Viktor Hovland won a 'hole in one' on Monday in the 8th and was in the fight, even to remove Spaniard Jon Rahm from the world number one position, although in the end he finished six hits behind the winner.
Rahm finished with 290 total strokes (2 over par) and a closing round of 77 (+5), with four birdies for four bogeys and a five-fold bogey on the 4th, his worst result on a hole on the PGA Tour, which he reached in 2016.
Number one went up to three times in the water on hole 4, which cost him as many drops to complete that par 4 with nine hits. He started the day with -4 in the total and ended with +2. He handed out four cards of 69 (-3), 72 (even), 72 (even) and 77 (+5).
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