Cameron Smith shoots record breaking score to win Sentry Tournament of Champions

Australia’s Cameron Smith has held off world number one Jon Rahm to claim the Sentry Tournament of Champions trophy in Hawaii.

Smith started the day in a tie for the lead with Rahm but took the lead with a birdie at the 4th hole. The lead was two at the turn which Rahm pulled back to one with birdie at the par-3 11th hole.

Smith maintained the single stroke lead matching every move from Rahm, both players making four birdies each over the closing six holes. to claim his fourth PGA Tour victory in his 157th start.

“I felt like with Jon obviously playing with him over the weekend, I felt like I needed to make a birdie to kind of keep up with him or stay in front,” Smith said. “The putts kept going in. That was the key over the weekend, I think, just to see the putts go in.”

The 72-hole score of 34-under par beat the previous best winning score, but Ernie Els in 2003, by a whopping three strokes.

Fellow Australia Matt Jones caught fire over the weekend and storm into third place just two strokes behind Smith.

Jones shot scores of 62 and 61 over the weekend to break the record for the lowest 36-hole score to par (23-under) in consecutive rounds in TOUR history.

“You just have a lot of opportunities out there and I was lucky enough to make some putts today and yesterday and then holed out a few shots today for — I holed out one for an eagle and chipped one in yesterday for an eagle, so those always help the score,” Jones said.

“It just goes to show the depth of the PGA TOUR and how good the players are. If you told me I would have shot 32-under I would have been more than happy to sit in the clubhouse and let everyone play and see what happens.”