The Australian picked up his second LIV individual title, closing with a 68 at Centurion Club to post 15-under and win by a shot from his Ripper GC teammate Marc Leishman and American Patrick Reed.

The day did not entirely belong to Smith, who lipped out with a par putt of less than two metres at the final hole which cost his team a chance of winning the team event.

Had it dropped, Ripper GC would have had a playoff with 4Aces for that competition.

But Smith was delighted to break what for him has been a longer-than-usual streak without a win, stretching to eight months since the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland last November.

He will rest up next week before teeing it up at Royal Liverpool in the final major of 2023 the following week as he seeks to retain possession of the Claret Jug.

“I’m thrilled,” Smith said. “It gives me a shot of confidence, absolutely.

“This was a gutsy win. Over the weekend I didn’t have my best stuff with the driver, which had actually been feeling really good.

“I still have some work to do on that but I am really happy to get the win.

“It really hasn’t been that long, but it feels like forever, especially the way I’ve been playing the last couple of months.

“I’ve been knocking on the door of winning, and it’s nice to get one out of the way.

“Hopefully it opens the floodgates a little bit.”

Smith is one of 10 Australians in the Open field.

The Australians played well as a group at the US Women’s Open at Pebble Beach but none was in contention as American Allisen Corpuz won the first women’s major played at the iconic venue.

Minjee Lee began the final day within shouting distance but a bogey at the par-5 second hole followed by a string of pars saw her fall from the top page of the leaderboard.

The 27-year-old suffered an unlucky break when she missed the fairway right at the par-5 14th, forced to chop out sideways on her way to the first of two straight bogeys.

But, as champions often do, Lee gave the crowd a moment to savour on 18, holing a birdie putt from just inside 11 feet to end her defence in style.

Lee’s final round of 3-over 75 saw her finish level with fellow Aussies Hannah Green (69) and Grace Kim (71) in a tie for 13th.

Green holed a 22-foot putt for eagle at the par-5 sixth and was 4-under on her round when she made birdies at 12 and 15 but a tee shot that went left onto the rocky outcrop led to a bogey at the 72nd hole.

In Denmark, Victorian David Micheluzzi had a nice week on the DP World Tour, picking up a €36,000 pay cheque for tied-17th in the Made In HimmerLand tournament, his best finish in a stand-alone DP World Tour event.

Micheluzzi was playing on a sponsor’s invitation and also is in the field for Royal Liverpool.

Photo: Tom Dulat/Getty Images

Results
US Women’s Open
Pebble Beach Golf Links, Pebble Beach, California
1             Allisen Corpuz    69-70-71-69—279            $US2m
T13        Minjee Lee          72-73-72-75—292            $170,020
T13        Hannah Green    76-71-76-69—292            $170,020
T13        Grace Kim            74-76-71-71—292            $170,020
T33        Lydia Ko (NZ)      76-71-74-75—296            $49,649
T33        Gabriela Ruffels 78-71-70-77—296            $49,649
MC         Amelia Garvey (NZ)          78-75—153
MC         Maddison Hinson-Tolchard (a)     78-80—158

DP World Tour
Made in Himmerland
HimmerLand, Farsø, Denmark
1             Rasmus Hojgaard             68-70-65-64–267              €507,458
Won on sixth hole of sudden death playoff
T17        David Micheluzzi               71-69-62-70–272              €36,119
MC         Jason Scrivener 72-71–143
MC         Blake Windred    73-76–149

PGA TOUR
John Deere Classic
TPC Deere Run, Silvis, Illinois
1             Sepp Straka        73-63-65-62–263              $US1.332m
T31        Aaron Baddeley 70-67-71-65–273              $45,232
T42        Geoff Ogilvy        70-68-69-68–275              $23,606
66           Harrison Endycott             68-69-70-73–280              $15,910
MC         Cameron Percy  74-69–143
MC         Greg Chalmers   72-73–145

Challenge Tour
Italian Challenge Open
Golf Nazionale, Viterbo, Italy
1             Matteo Manassero          66-65-69-67–267              €56,000
MC         Jordan Zunic       74-73–147
MC         Connor McKinney             81-68–149

LIV Golf
LIV Golf – London
Centurion Club, Hemel Hempstead, England
1             Cameron Smith  63-67-68–198     $US4m
T2           Marc Leishman  64-69-66–199     $1.875m
T31        Matt Jones          73-67-70–210     $167,500
T31        Danny Lee (NZ)  74-67-69–210     $167,500
39           Jed Morgan         75-69-69–213     $146,250

Legends Tour
Swiss Seniors Open
Golf Club Bad Ragaz, Bad Ragaz, Switzerland
1             Adilson Da Silva 66-62-67–195
T6           Michael Long (NZ)            69-67-65–201
T19        Jason Norris        66-69-69–204
T25        Peter Fowler       68-71-67–206

LET Access Series
Capio Ogon Trophy
Upsala GolfKlubb, Sweden
1             Sofie Kibsgaard Nielsen  73-72-70–215     €6,400
T16        Kelsey Bennett   73-72-76–215     €828
T29        Hanee Song (NZ)              77-73-73–223     €576
T36        Kristalle Blum     75-72-77–224     €512