Smith and Neergaard-Peterson reached the 72nd hole tied at 15 under after a close contest over the final nine holes. Neergaard Petersen hit his drive into a difficult rough situation on the right side with a bunker between his ball and the green.
Smith found the green with his second, but with a long, sloping putt to the hole. In fact, as he has been all week, Neergaard went up and down for par, while Smith missed his difficult putt for birdie, and then a return putt from 5 feet to force a play-off.
The 26-year-old Danish player won by a single shot at 15-under 269 after rounds of 67, 66, 66 and 70. Smith started the final round two shots behind the leader, drew level at the turn and led outright after hitting a 10-foot putt for birdie on the 10th hole.
After a birdie on the 11th, Smith made bogey on the 12th and was tied with Neergaard-Petersen at 13 under. The pair stayed together until the final hole, when Smith’s missed par putt gave his opponent a career-changing victory.
“It’s hard. I’m really at a loss for words. It’s been a struggle all day,” Neergaard said. “Even from the outside you can look calm, but inside (for me) it was a storm all day.
“But I managed to keep fighting and get it up and down to make that putt on the last one. I don’t know what to say, to be honest.”
Smith, the 2022 British Open champion who ended his streak of seven straight cuts this year on Friday, shot 66 on Saturday to tie for second, two strokes off the lead.
After all his missed cuts, Smith said it was “nice to be in contention” going into the final round.
“It’s been a while since I’ve had this feeling, to be honest,” he said. “I love that it’s the Australian Open. I couldn’t think of a better place to get back into shape. It would shut a few people up.”
Smith has won the Australian PGA twice but is yet to win the Stonehaven Cup as champion of his national open.
His last tournament victory came at the LIV tournament in Bedminster, England in August 2022 and his previous top-10 finish was in July.
Rory McIlroy’s 11 bogeys over four days, including an unfortunate encounter with a banana peel on Saturday, kept him out of contention. On Sunday, the Northern Irishman had a final-round 69, with five birdies and three bogeys, to finish in a tie for 10th.
McIlroy calls for a better ending for the Australian Open
McIlroy, the Race to Dubai winner who completed his Grand Slam career when he won the Masters this year, was making his first appearance at the Australian Open since 2015, which he won in 2013.
After his final round on Sunday, the world number 2 called for a more favorable schedule to attract more of the game’s top players.
Although he thought the sand courts were a huge draw, the scheduling did not help the tournament attract the best foreign players.
“I’d obviously like to see a few more players come in and play, but it’s difficult with three tournaments on the schedule this week,” McIlroy said, referring to the fixture list that includes Tiger Woods’ Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas and the DP World Tour’s Nedbank Challenge in South Africa.
“There need to be conversations with people much more important than me who are setting the schedules, and hopefully the Australian Open can find a date that suits everyone and everyone can at least have the opportunity to come down.”
“People who see the scenes here on TV… it will definitely pique their interest,” he said.
The winner of the Australian Open, the second event on the European tour’s new tournament schedule for the end of this year and 2026, will receive a Masters exemption next year. And the top three finishers not yet exempt – Michael Hollick, Adam Scott and Si Woo Kim – have qualified for the 2026 British Open at Royal Birkdale.
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