Staff WriterThe Crown Australian Open has a habit of exposing nerves, and on a day when the pressure was thick enough to chew, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen stood firm. The Dane outlasted Major Champion Cam Smith to seal his maiden DP World Tour title, delivering a finish that felt every bit as dramatic as the tournament’s reputation demands.
From the opening tee, it never looked like a quiet stroll. Neergaard-Petersen started with a two-shot lead, but as he admitted afterwards, “From the outside, sometimes you can look calm but there was a storm inside all day today.” That storm only intensified when he bogeyed the fourth and saw his advantage disappear before he’d even settled into the round.
A tap-in birdie at the sixth helped, but two more dropped shots on nine and ten had him trailing Smith by two and staring down a day that could easily have come apart. Instead, he doubled down. His long-range birdie at the brutal 12th triggered a momentum swing he later described as pivotal: “Obviously, the birdie on the 12th was huge, getting back into a tie for the lead there.”
When he rolled in another birdie at 13, the comeback was fully on. Even an errant tee shot under the trees at 14 didn’t rattle him. He steadied himself yet again—exactly the sort of finish he felt had been in him all week. “It’s one of those things I feel like I’ve done the other couple of days—I’ve been able to finish well,” he said.
By the time both he and Smith birdied the 17th, the pair were level with one to play, the finale perfectly set. Then came the defining moment: Neergaard-Petersen missed the 18th green, leaving himself an uphill scrap just to save par. He stepped up, trusted his yardage, and drilled a nerveless ten-footer that swung the entire Crown Australian Open in his favour.
“I managed to just keep battling and then to get it up and down from there to make that putt on the last – I don’t really know what to say, to be honest,” he said afterwards, still sounding stunned. Smith couldn’t match it, and the Dane walked off with a one-shot victory at 15-under, a closing 70, and the biggest milestone of his career so far.
It also booked his place at Augusta—something that clearly meant as much as the trophy. “The Masters is the event I’ve grown up watching so many times, just dreaming of playing it,” he said. “Getting to do that is awesome.”
This victory capped a whirlwind rise that has seen him win three HotelPlanner Tour events in 2024, top the Road to Mallorca Rankings, and earn dual PGA TOUR and DP World Tour membership.
Still, until now, he hadn’t managed to lift a DP World Tour trophy. That wait is over. “To get the win here at my final event of the year was the only thing missing from a perfect year. I’m so happy.”
Smith finished one shot back on 14-under, Si Woo Kim took solo third, and alongside Michael Hollick and Adam Scott, the trio secured their places in The 154th Open at Royal Birkdale through the Crown Australian Open.
As the sun set over a tournament that never takes prisoners, one thing was clear: Neergaard-Petersen didn’t just win—he earned every inch of it. And with Augusta now on his horizon, his story is only getting started.
