Elvis Smylie holds out mentor Cam Smith to win the Australian PGA by 2 shots

BRISBANE, Australia — 

Australian Elvis Smylie changeable a 4-under 67 to triumph the 54-hole Australian PGA connected Sunday by 2 shots aft a last circular shootout with his compatriot and erstwhile mentor Cameron Smith.

Smylie finished connected 14-under 199, 2 up of Smith who had a 2-under last circular 69. Smith's LIV circuit teammate Mark Leishman and Australian Anthony Quayle shared 3rd spot connected 11 nether astatine the par-71 Royal Queensland.

Heavy rainfall showers and an unplayable people connected Friday forced the 2nd circular to beryllium abandoned and made the associated Australasian PGA and European Tour lawsuit a 54-hole tournament.

Five years agone Smylie, the lad of erstwhile Australian tennis pro Liz Smylie. won the Cameron Smith Scholarship which allowed him to walk a week astatine Smith's Florida location wherever helium was capable to larn to unrecorded and signifier arsenic a PGA Tour professional.

Now 22, Smylie started Sunday's last circular tied atop the leaderboard with Smith astatine 10 nether par.

Smith was the 2022 British Open victor astatine St. Andrews and antecedently won the Australian PGA successful 2017, 2018 and 2022. Smylie had a breakthrough triumph successful past month's West Australian Open.

The brace traded birdies until the sixth spread erstwhile determination was a two-shot turnaround erstwhile Smylie birdied and Smith bogeyed. Smylie, who led aft a archetypal circular 65, had 4 birdies successful his archetypal 7 holes and played his outward 9 successful four-under 32, turning astatine 14 under.

He had bully ups and downs nether unit astatine the par 4 10th and 12th holes, utilizing his 3 wood to bunt the shot onto the greens from adjacent range.

With a bogey astatine the ninth hole, Smith turned successful 35, having dropped backmost into a 2nd spot necktie astatine 11-under with Quayle, Mark Leishman and Australia David Micheluzzi.

Smith had different bogey connected the par-4 14th which dropped him backmost to 10 nether portion Quayle finished with an 8-under 63 to instrumentality an aboriginal clubhouse pb astatine 11-under.

Smylie was nether unit astatine the par-5 15th erstwhile helium deed his 2nd good to the near of the green. Again helium scrambled to prevention par portion Smith birdied to determination backmost to 11-under, cutting the pb to 3 shots.

Smith trimmed Smylie's pb to 2 erstwhile helium holed retired from disconnected the greenish for birdie astatine the par-3 17th, winning a ample cheer from the assemblage connected the tournament's enactment hole. Smylie's birdie putt from six feet slipped past.

Smylie held his nervus erstwhile helium enactment his tee changeable connected the 18th into airy unsmooth with the wide trunk of a histrion betwixt him and the greenish 186 meters away. He curled his astir the tree, but into a greenside bunker.

Smylie played a nerveless changeable from the soil to 3 feet and holed retired for par, finishing with 11 consecutive pars. He managed to get up and down from precarious positions six times connected the backmost nine.

“It’s a imagination travel true," Smylie said. "I won’t hide this time playing with Cam and [Leishman].

“My abbreviated crippled was great; I decidedly saved myself.”

The Australian PGA is the archetypal lawsuit of the 2025 European Tour season.

Next week, galore of the aforesaid players volition question to Melbourne for the Australian Open, besides connected the European Tour. It is being played concurrently with the Women’s Australian Open astatine famed sandbelt courses Kingston Heath and Victoria.