Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman come out on top to WIN the Zurich Classic
The Australian pair of Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman beat Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel in a playoff at TPC Louisiana.
Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in a playoff after what became an epic battle with Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel.
Oosthuizen and Schwartzel began the foursomes on Sunday with a one-shot lead on 19-under-par and they made birdies at the 2nd and 4th holes to make a solid start to the fourth round.
Their Australian opponents also birdied the 2nd hole and added two more on their front nine. Both teams were locked together on 21-under-par heading into the back nine.
Mistakes began to creep in as Oosthuizen and Schwartzel bogeyed the 10th hole, but their opponents bogeyed the 13th hole when Smith took a penalty drop in the fairway as a tree impeded his swing.
Smith and Leishman led by one with four holes to play but a two-shot swing on the par-4 15th hole went in the South Africans' favour, so Oosthuizen and Schwartzel led by one with three to play on 21-under-par.
The plot thickened once more when Leishman chipped in for birdie on the short par-4 16th, despite having to take a penalty drop by the green when Smith's tee shot trickled into the water.
"He hit a really good shot," said Leishman of his partner's tee shot on the 16th hole.
"It sounds silly because it went in the water, but it was the right club and it was the right shot that just drifted a little bit in the wind. I wasn't walking up there thinking I wanted to jab him in the ribs or anything, I was just concentrating on the next shot."
Both teams bogeyed the par-3 17th hole and they came on to the par-5 18th tee box tied on 20-under-par. Each team played with no risks to make par and so the playoff began on the same hole.
It proved to be agony for Oosthuizen, who hasn't won on the PGA Tour since the Open Championship in 2010, when the 38-year-old found the water with his tee shot.
Although Smith found the fairway bunker with his drive, the Australian pair made a par which was enough to seal victory in what was a great foursomes battle between the two teams.
"It was a pretty cool week wasn't it?" said Smith after the playoff.
"We just played some really solid golf and it was really tough. That back nine was brutal but we hung in there and we got it done."
This was Smith's second win at the Zurich Classic, following up on his victory alongside Jonas Blixt in 2017.
