Cameron Smith claimed a dramatic win within the Players Championship and a cheque for $3.6 million as Shane Lowry and Séamus Power failed to fireplace at TPC Sawgrass.
he Australian started the ultimate spherical tied for sixth on seven-under, two pictures behind India’s Anirban Lahiri however made ten birdies in a six-under 66, getting up and down from 58 yards for bogey after a go to to the water on the final, to win by a shot from the Indian and by two strokes from England’s Paul Casey on 13-under par.
Lowry went into the ultimate spherical simply three pictures behind Lahiri on six-under-par however might solely handle a level-par 72 to complete tied thirteenth on six-under.
The Offaly man shaved the opening for birdie on the primary two greens, then bogeyed the third and sixth.
He fought again with birdies on the eighth, ninth and eleventh to get inside three strokes of the lead once more however didn’t make the putts and needed to accept tied-13 and a cheque for $327,222 after ending with a bogey.
It was additionally a irritating last spherical for Power, who was four-under after seven holes however double-bogeyed the seventeenth, his eighth, after a go to to water and performed the remaining holes in stage par to card a 70 and tied for thirty third on three-under with Rory McIlroy, who signed off with a bogey-free 66.
Power, who gained $100,111, will get an opportunity to relaxation his troublesome elbow this week after a disappointing week left him going through a nervy two weeks to seek out out if he’ll qualify for the Masters.
While he was projected to maneuver up two locations to World No 48, he’s skipping this week’s Valspar Championship to relaxation his elbow earlier than teeing it up within the last counting World Golf Championship Dell Technologies Match Play in Texas subsequent week.
“I played poorly all week and hit a lot of bad shots,” Power lamented. “I didn’t actually do something effectively, to be sincere. I didn’t actually make a whole lot of putts and hit a whole lot of unfastened pictures, and that type of provides up round right here.
“You don’t get away with too many loose shots here with the breeze and rough up, maybe not today but the last couple of days.”
Quizzed about his quest to stay within the prime 50 after subsequent week’s last counting WGC at Austin Country Club, he stated: “It’s not one thing I’m involved about, to be sincere. People preserve asking me about it. People had been dissatisfied how I performed the final couple of weeks, and it hasn’t been nice.
“But I’m going to rest for the next couple of days because my elbow has been hurting again and then get back into some practice and go from there.”
Meanwhile, Viktor Hovland tied for ninth after a rollercoaster 69 that included an animated dialogue with Daniel Berger over drop disagreement as he tried to guard the sphere.
Hovland stated he had “massive respect” for Berger regardless of insisting he felt the American obtained his level of entry fallacious and needed to take an incorrect drop on the par-five sixteenth.
While a guidelines official informed the gamers, “You normally work it out amongst yourselves”, Berger was adamant he must be allowed drop far nearer to the inexperienced.
“This is a bad drop here, I’m telling you,” Berger stated. “I’ll drop here, if this is where you guys want me to drop. But it’s way too far back.”
Hovland caught to his weapons, nevertheless, and later defined: “Daniel’s sport is nice, and I’ve huge respect for him as a participant. But, on the finish of the day, we’ve obtained to guard the sphere and defend all the opposite guys.
“It’s not a enjoyable dialog, however whenever you strongly consider in one thing, you type of have to face your floor.
“It ended up being somewhat of a compromise. He dropped a little bit further up than Joel [Dahmen] and I kind of thought, but we ended up making a compromise, and that’s where he hit it from.”
