Manic Monday

Sony Open, Waialae Country Club, Hawaii

Cameron Smith of Australia shot a closing round two-under-par 68, including a birdie putt on the final hole to force a play-off with Brendan Steele of the USA. He took the title at the first extra hole when Steele found trouble off the tee which allowed Smith the luxury of an easy two putt par to take the win.

Smith said he hoped his play-off win would allow people in his home country to "smile for a moment or two" as Australia continues to be ravaged by bushfires.

Smith's own family have directly suffered from the disaster with his uncle Warren having lost his home to the fires.

This is the 28-year-old from Brisbane’s first solo win on tour, his previous only win was when he partnered Sweden's Jonas Blixt in the team stroke-play format at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in 2017.

Smith and a host of other golfers at the event donated a portion of their prize money to the relief effort for the Australian fires.

Webb Simpson missed the play-off by one shot after a closing round of  67 with Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell sharing fourth with America’s Ryan Palmer after a an excellent six-under-par 64.

For the final leaderboard click HERE

South African Open, Randpark GC, South Africa

Branden Grace shot an incredible nine-under-par 62 final round to come from three shots back to take the South African Open from overnight leader Louis Oosthuizen. This is Grace’s first win since winning the Nedbank Golf Challenge back in 2017.

His putter was on fire as he raced to the turn in just 30 shots with four birdies and an eagle in his first nine holes. This catapulted Grace into the lead over a slow starting Oosthuizen that was, until the fellow South African aced the par three 7th hole.

However, Grace continued the birdie barrage with four consecutive birdies from the 11th tee. It became a two-horse race down the stretch but Oosthuizen couldn’t live with the pace set by Grace who ultimately had two putts on the last to be sure of the title, he only needed one.

The 31-year-old from George South Africa had an awful year in 2019 which saw him slide as low as 129th in the world rankings. The win also earns him a spot at The Open as the South African Open offered three qualifying spots for those not otherwise qualified.

The second Open berth was secured by England's Marcus Armitage, who holed a twenty-foot birdie putt on the last green to grab solo third place a shot ahead of South Africa's Jaco Ahlers and England’s Jack Senior. Senior lost out to Ahler on the third place at Royal St. George’s next July by virtue of a slightly lower world ranking.

For the final leaderboard click HERE

Hong Kong Open, Hong Kong Golf Club

Australia's Wade Ormsby held off the challenge of a charging Open champion, Shane Lowry, to win the protest-delayed Hong Kong Open for the second time in three years. Ormsby had a final round four-under-par 66 to finish on seventeen-under-par three clear of Lowry.

Lowry, in his best performance since taking The Open at Portrush in July, shot a sparkling final round 64 but he could never quite reel in Ormsby.

Tony Finau who partnered Lowry had a rather flat finish when he found water at the last and ran up a double bogey. The American, world number 15, would ultimately sign for a 67 and finished sevn back from the leader alone in fifth.

The Hong Kong Open was originally slated for November, but was postponed as the city was gripped by pro-democracy demonstrations.

For the final leaderboard click HERE