Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen picked up his first win on the DP World Tour as he held his nerve for a one-shot victory over Cameron Smith to win the Australian Open at Royal Melbourne.
Rory McIlroy had to settle for tied-14th place after 11 bogeys over four days, including an unfortunate encounter with a banana peel on Saturday. In the final round on Sunday, the Northern Irishman shot 69.
Neergaard-Petersen had entered the final round with a two-shot cushion over home favourite Smith but at the 10th hole things got interesting as Smith drained a 15-foot birdie while Neergaard-Petersen suffered a bogey to bring them into joint lead.
Birdies on the 12th and 13th helped the Dane take back the lead but Smith would not go away, matching birdies on the 17th seeing them go into the par-four 18th level.
It was on the final hole that Neergaard-Petersen showed his real nerve to convert after a lovely up-and-down for par, Smith missing two putts as he suffered a bogey and in turn, helped his opponent to victory.
The winner of the Australian Open, which is the second event on the European tour's new schedule of tournaments for late this year and 2026, receives a Masters exemption next year and the top three finishers not already exempt of Adam Scott, Si Woo Kim and Michael Hollick have all qualified for The Open in 2026 at Royal Birkdale.
"It's hard. I'm really at a loss for words. It's been a battle all day," Neergaard said. "Even from the outside, you can look calm but it was a storm inside (for me) all day.
"But I managed to keep battling and to get it up and down to make that putt on the last. I don't know what to say, to be honest.".
After all his missed cuts, Smith, said that it was "nice being in contention" entering 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 form. It would shut a few people up."
Smith has won the Australian PGA twice but has yet to win the Stonehaven Cup as the 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.
McIlroy, the Race to Dubai winner who completed his career Grand Slam when he won the Masters this year, was making his first appearance at the Australian Open since 2015. He won it in 2013.
Speaking after his final round, the world No 2 called for a more favourable schedule to attract more of the game's top players.
While he thought the sandbelt courses held massive appeal, the scheduling does not help it attract the top overseas players.
"I obviously would love to have a few more players come down and play, but it's hard with three tournaments going on in the schedule this week," said McIlroy referring to the schedule clash with Tiger Woods' Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas and the DP World Tour's Nedbank Challenge in South Africa.
"There need to be conversations had with people much more important than me that set the schedules, and hopefully the Australian Open can find a date that accommodates everyone and everyone can at least have the option to come down."
"People seeing the scenes here on TV…it'll definitely pique their interest," he said.
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