Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen capped off a "perfect" golf season for him with a stunning victory at the DP World Tour’s Crown Australian Open on Sunday.

The 26-year-old Dane sank a 15-foot putt to rescue par at the final hole and then watched Aussie Cameron Smith miss a 6-footer for a three-putt bogey that would have forced a playoff. He closed in 1-under 70 at Royal Melbourne Golf Club’s composite course for a 72-hole total of 15-under 269.

“To get the win here in my final event of the season is the only thing that was missing from a perfect season,” Neergaard-Petersen said. “I’m just so happy.”

Just 12 months ago, he was playing the Hotel Planner Tour, the developmental circuit of the DP World Tour. Now Neergaard-Petersen is a winner on the DP World Tour, owns a PGA Tour card by finishing ninth in the Race to Dubai and earned a 2026 Masters invitation with his triumph Down Under.

“The Masters is the event I’ve grown up watching so many times, just dreaming of playing it, so to get to do that is awesome,” he said.

Neergaard-Petersen entered the final round with a two-stroke lead but it was gone quickly after a bogey at the fourth hole. The final round turned into quite the battle with several players, including South Korea’s Si Woo Kim, who finished third, sharing or taking the lead. A resurgent Smith, the 2022 British Open champion who jumped to LIV Golf and missed the cut at all four majors this season, grabbed the lead by holing a lengthy right-to-left breaking birdie putt at No. 10, which also was the second straight bogey for Neergaard-Petersen and dropped him two off the lead. But it also turned out to be his last of three bogeys in the final round. Just two holes later, they’d have another two-shot swing but in reverse – as Neergaard-Petersen holed a birdie putt and Smith failed to get up and down from a greenside bunker. The Dane, who became the first from his country to have his name etched on the Stonehaven Cup trophy, birdied the 13th from close range to take the solo lead briefly. After his tee shot at the 14th drifted into the trees on the right side, Neergaard-Petersen was fortunate to save par. But a Smith birdie at the same hole tied things up again. Neergaard-Petersen made a solid two-putt birdie at the par-5 17th after hitting to the back fringe in two but it was answered by Smith holing from 15 feet.

Tied going to the last, Smith, a Queenslander, had the crowd in his favor and reached the green in regulation while the Dane faced a seemingly impossible shot after his approach sailed right and into the rough between a pair of bunkers.

“You could throw 20 balls down there and you’re never going to make one of them unless you make a 30-footer,” the Aussie broadcaster said on TV.

But Neergaard-Petersen flipped the script by lofting a pitch to 15 feet and holing the putt. He pumped both fists downward as the putt found its home.

“I always had that belief that if I continued to hit my spots the putts would eventually drop,” he said.

Almost as improbably, Smith, who possesses one of the silkiest putting strokes in the game, pulled his par putt and the dream of winning his country’s open was over. Smith, who was seeking his first win since LIV Golf Bedminster in August 2023, finished second at his national open for the second time in his career. Fellow Aussie Adam Scott, thanks to a solo fifth, booked a spot into the British Open at Royal Birkdale in July. Reigning Masters champion Rory McIlroy shot 69 and finished T-14. But this day belonged to the Dane who held his nerve under pressure.

“Sometimes we can look calm but there was a storm inside all day,” Neergaard-Petersen said.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen spoils Cam Smith bid to win Australian Open

Reporting by Adam Schupak, Golfweek / Golfweek

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