Great Dane delivers Crown Australian Open stunner

7 Dec 2025

Media Release:

Denmark’s Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen produced an implausible up-and-down from the worst possible position to claim a drama-charged Crown Australian Open on the 72nd hole at Royal Melbourne Golf Club.

More than 33,000 fans enveloped the 18th fairway as Neergaard-Petersen and Cameron Smith arrived to settle their stalemate, their approach shots into vastly different positions instilling a sense of destiny amongst the legion of Smith supporters.

Trying to close out his maiden DP World Tour title in his second attempt at the Stonehaven Cup, Neergaard-Petersen’s second shot from the centre of the fairway ballooned and became lodged in the heathland right of the green, the same parcel of land where Billy Dunk famously got up and down to beat David Graham by a shot at the Chrysler Classic 50 years ago.

Smith, in response, played his second to the centre of the green, the ball rolling out to leave some 35 feet of birdie putt to win his most coveted tournament.

The Dane showed remarkable composure to hack out to 20 feet, Smith’s shot at history coming up five feet short and right of the hole.

On a line eerily similar to that which Rory McIlroy holed some two hours earlier, Neergaard-Petersen (70) turned the tables when his par putt caught enough of the left edge to fall into the hole.

It left Smith (69) needing to hole out to extend the tournament into extra holes, his try missing on the left lip to silence the crowd – a crowd that totalled 104,900 for the four days – for the first time all week.

It is the fourth international winner of the Crown Australian Open in succession, the first time that has happened since Jack Nicklaus's fifth win in 1976, Smith too heartbroken to speak with the media post-round.

For 26-year-old Neergaard-Petersen, it is the chance to lay claim to Dunk’s Island as ‘Raz Island’.

“To win my first event and for it to be the Australian Open, which is such an historic event, to be able to put my name among those names is unbelievable,” said Neergaard-Petersen.

“It was one of the things that was a lot of people that asked me why I decided to go down here and that, being able to have a chance to put my name on such a historic trophy, was definitely one of them.”

Crediting the downhill left-to-right putt he holed on 12 for sparking a run of 3-under across his final seven holes, Neergard-Petersen estimated his unlikely up and down as a 1-in-100 occurrence.

“I mean I was nowhere on 18, I had nothing from the right and somehow some way I managed to get it up and down,” he added.

“I was actually quite surprised when I got up there. I thought it was just in the right trap, which again, it’s not an easy shot, but it’s certainly better than where I was.

“The lie, the difficult circumstances, I think about where I hit it (on the green), I could probably get it there, I don’t know, 20 per cent of the time. Then 40 per cent of the time it’s in the front in the bunker and 40 per cent it’s way further. And then from there you have a 30-footer, which you’re probably only making 5 per cent.

“I don’t know, I mean one-in-a-hundred.”

With a win on an Alister Mackenzie design now on his resume, Neergaard-Petersen can now look forward to a Masters debut at Augusta National Golf Club next April.

“It means the world to me,” said Neergaard-Petersen.

“Growing up, The Masters wasn’t the first tournament that I watched, but as soon as I watched that tournament, it was the first event that I was like, If I one day become a professional golfer, that’s the event I want to play.

“It’s a dream come true and I can’t wait for April.”

A birdie at the par-5 17th ensured Adam Scott (70) secured one of three exemptions into the 2026 Open Championship along with third-placed Si Woo Kim (70) and unheralded South African Michael Hollick, whose 6-under 65 was the Sunday best by two strokes and earns him a spot at Royal Birkdale.

How it unfolded

Pin positions largely resistant to temptation kept the majority of players in neutral through the front nine.

Smith edged one stroke closer when he poured in a birdie putt from just off the green at one and had a share of the lead when Neergaard-Petersen made a rare slip-up at the difficult par-4 fourth.

There was a two-shot swing when the Dane made birdie at six and Smith missed his par attempt from six feet, the Queenslander clawing one back with birdie at the par-3 seventh.

Kim had one birdie and eight pars in his outward nine to stay within one, Adam Scott and Carlos Ortiz struggling to stay in touch, three off the lead as they began the back nine.

A second bogey by Neergaard-Petersen on nine sent the final group to the 10th tee locked together at 13-under par, Smith desperately searching for the spark that would ignite his final nine holes and the thousands willing him on.

That spark arrived with a two-shot swing Smith’s way on 10, his lengthy birdie putt and a second straight bogey by Neergaard-Petersen pushing the 32-year-old one clear eight holes from the finish line.

A third two-shot swing at the par-4 12th saw the lead shared once again, Neergaard-Petersen assuming a narrow advantage a second birdie in succession on 13 to get back to where he started at 14-under.

As Neergaard-Petersen narrowly missed making eagle at the par-5 17th, Smith had to conjure a brilliant up-and-down of his own after hitting his second shot left of the green.

The pair traded birdies to head to the 72nd tee all square at 15-under, the drama that came next to live long in the memories of all who witnessed it.