When you’re trying to create drama, the ending can be the hardest part to get right. How do you create a finale that justifies an entire season but also the stars you have assembled?

The climax to LIV Golf’s season—its team championship in Dallas—wasn’t perfect. With Dallas getting scorched by blazing hot temperatures, the crowds were not the best the league has seen. But there was no denying the entertainment was supercharged as the all-Australian Ripper GC team clinched a $14 million victory in the final moments.

After two days of team match play, the final day was stroke play with all four players’ scores counted. Only the top four-placed teams—Ripper, 4Aces, Iron Heads and Legion XIII—could take first place.

There were plenty of surprises at Maridoe Golf Club. Kevin Na’s Iron Heads—the 13th and lowest-seeded team before the final event—kept pace with Ripper GC and Dustin Johnson’s 4Aces GC until the end. Or the fact U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GC, arguably the best team all season, had already been knocked out in the semifinals by the Iron Heads and were forced to compete in a consolation round for fifth place (they ended seventh). Five-time major winner Brooks Koepka, captain of Smash GC, shot 80 on the final day competing in the bottom tier of teams.

It all came down to the last hole, however, and the advantage was with the Rippers, a franchise led by Cam Smith, a six-time PGA Tour winner including the Open Championship at St. Andrews. Smith and his 2024 recruit, Lucas Herbert, had each birdied the par-5 17th to take a two-shot lead late after three hours of it changing hands regularly.

“I said to [caddie] Sam [Pinfold] on the third hole … ‘I’m not even gonna look at the scoreboard. It’s useless on these days,” Smith said after winning his team’s first season-long title.

The tournament was still alive on the final hole, especially with major winners lurking like Johnson and his teammate Patrick Reed, as well as Na and his teammate Danny Lee.

“Watching Cam on the 18th tee, I thought, there’s not many other people I’d want playing this hole for us,” Herbert said.

But when Johnson, the 2016 U.S. Open and 2020 Masters champion, drove it in the water on 18, it was all but over. “Eighteen is a difficult hole and I didn’t hit a very good tee shot,” Johnson said. “[Overall] it was fun. That’s what you want. It was close. It came down to the last couple holes.”

Ripper GC finished the day at 11 under par for a three-shot win over the 4Aces, courtesy of Smith’s four-under 68, Herbert’s three-under 69 and two-under 70s by each by Marc Leishman and Matt Jones. Johnson and Reed each shot 69, while fellow 4Aces Pat Perez and Harold Varner posted 71s.

The drama of the final day was exacerbated by the sheer amount of golf shots shown on the broadcast. Most two-minute periods had at least four shots shown to viewers.

Overall, Ripper GC’s victory was a boost for LIV Golf as the league continues to push the team element as its point of difference. With the $25-million prize purses at each of LIV’s 14 events, golf fans may wonder if tour pros who left the PGA Tour are enjoying the team aspect or simply embracing it as part of their new league. But Ripper GC seem to have a genuine camaraderie, as evidenced in social media clips of their practice and preparations, which are full of practice round games, challenges and jokes.

“I mean, they’re not only great golfers, but they’re better people. Just so happens that we’re good golfers, too,” Smith said.

Herbert joined LIV Golf in time for the 2024 season after becoming a winner of one title on the PGA Tour and three on the DP World Tour. The 28-year-old said the competitive environment had brought out some of his best golf, which has included Ripper GC teams victories at its Adelaide and Singapore events this year.

“Excluding myself, these are three of the coolest cats under pressure I’ve ever seen,” Herbert said. “I didn’t want to be the worst score out here today [and have] the boys giving me stick for the next few weeks about being the one that cost us the trophy. I just think it’s great, healthy competition to push each other on.”

All four Rippers will soon be back in their Australian homeland for a combination of the country’s summer golf events later this year—including the Australian Open and PGA—months before LIV Golf Adelaide 2025.

The league’s flagship event has been brought forward from its usual late-April slot to mid-February for next year’s edition. Smith recently also revealed his end-of-year schedule will include two modest state tournaments in Australia —the Queensland PGA Championship (Oct. 31-Nov. 3) in Brisbane and the New South Wales Open (Nov. 14-17). Then, he’ll tee up in the DP World Tour-sanctioned Australian PGA Championship in late November, seeking a fourth career win there.

“We’ve got some wins to show off … so [we’re] looking forward to all the events we’re going to get to play in Australia, both the end of this year and the start of next year,” Herbert said. “There might be some sore heads [hangovers] over the next four months on home soil.”

Main Image: David Cannon