Two trophies are top goals for Ripper GC at LIV Golf Adelaide

ADELAIDE, South Australia – They won last year as a team, and it was memorable. A tense playoff, the first in LIV Golf’s team competition. Their adoring home fans swarming the 18th green. Then an epic celebration, cementing this unique connection between four native Australians and the country they proudly represent.

“Incredible,” said Cameron Smith. “Awesome to be a part of.”

The one thing his Ripper GC team didn’t do at last year’s LIV Golf Adelaide was sweep both trophies. The individual victory went to HyFlyers GC’s Brendan Steele, winning his team’s first trophy of any kind.

The previous year also went to an American, with Talor Gooch shooting consecutive 10-under 62s in the first two rounds of the inaugural LIV Golf Adelaide in 2023. To add insult to Aussie injury, the then-all-American 4Aces GC took the team title.

If you’re adding it up, that six different Americans who have celebrated atop the Adelaide podium versus four Aussies.

You can see why the Rippers not only hope to successfully defend their team title this week at The Grange but also claim the individual title as well.

“Individually, of course it would be pretty special for any of us to win,” said Marc Leishman. “The field is just so good and deep every week out here that it’s tough to win. We’re playing against top players every single week.

“I think we would all love to win individually, but it’s also fun to be able to celebrate together when you win as a team. That’s something really unique to LIV Golf in that we have the team format, and you leave the golf course if you happen to win as happy as three other blokes.”

It’s been nearly 18 months since any Ripper has won an individual LIV Golf title, with Smith’s 2023 Bedminster victory being the most recent of his three single wins.

Last season was all about the team, with the win in Adelaide followed immediately by victory in Singapore, then topping off 2024 with the Team Championship in Dallas.

Certainly, the Rippers are hoping to successfully defend their title this week at The Grange. And of course, they would like nothing more than to celebrate both trophies.

But if they had to choose one or the other? For the Rippers this week, leaving The Grange with a team title on Sunday would be preferable to individual success. That’s how it felt to Smith last year.

“If we could replicate that again this week, I would 100% take it over an individual,” Smith said. “That was just so much fun to be in front of that home crowd, not only screaming your name but chanting ‘Ripper’ and ‘You little Ripper,’ whatever else you get around the course. It was epic.

“It’s amazing how the crowd change on that last day. For me, I was in the last group, and it went almost from ‘Come on, Cam’ to ‘Let’s go, Ripper’ because I didn’t have my greatest on the last day.”

The Ripper-Adelaide mutual love connection is something that other LIV Golf teams have yet to experience. The closest would be perhaps Fireballs GC and LIV Golf Andalucía, which is played on captain Sergio Garcia’s favorite course, Valderrama.

The Fireballs have three players from Spain, along with Spanish-speaking Abraham Ancer of Mexico – and the team did sweep both trophies last season via playoffs in both the individual (Garcia winning) and team. But Spanish golf fans also have another native major winner to root for in Legion XIII Captain Jon Rahm.

In Adelaide, it’s all about the Rippers.

“It’s our home country, so I would expect us to have a heavy advantage when we come here,” said the eldest Ripper, Matt Jones. “Australians love Australian sporting teams, and we are the Australian sporting team this week. …

“For us to come here and be the local team, we’re going to have all the support, and I’d expect it all. They love all four of us golfers, and I think they support us like we support each other. To have these three other guys, we’re very close – and I think the [other] teams will be a bit jealous of the camaraderie we have.”

However, there is a fifth Aussie in the field this week, and his connection to Adelaide is something that not even the Rippers can match.

Wade Ormsby was born in Adelaide, and his family home is just a couple of miles around the corner from the course, his mother still living there. He grew up playing The Grange and still lives in the area, in the leafy suburb of Stirling.

Asked if he’s a member of The Grange, Ormsby replied: “I think I’ve got some kind of honorary membership or ambassador membership they’ve given me. But I was a member all my junior and amateur days and my brother and father were members here.”

Ormsby, who played the first season on LIV Golf for Punch GC – the original All-Australian team until Smith rebranded it as Ripper GC starting in 2023 – is once again a reserve player this season. He’s active this week, filling in for injured Iron Heads GC member Jinichiro Kozuma for the second consecutive tournament.

No one knows The Grange better than Ormsby, and this will be his first start at Adelaide. What a story it would make for the hometown boy – now 44 – to win the individual trophy. But he’s not even dared to dream about it, wanting to simply remain focused on playing the best he can.

“It was kind of like just the stars aligning a little bit for me to get in here this week and obviously last week as well,” Ormsby said. “It’s just the way it’s fallen. I’m very grateful for the opportunity and hopefully we’ll put a good foot forward this week and play well.”

Ormsby admits his lifelong ties to The Grange is “an advantage but you still got to play good golf, and I’m playing against 53 of the best golfers in the world, so it’ not going to instantly put you to the top.”

Still, he cited the shifting wind conditions as a potential difference maker, the hot North winds of earlier this week giving way to a bit cooler Southwesterly winds once play begins. Adjusting his approach to course navigation will not be difficult.

The Rippers also discussed their experience growing up on Australian courses and how that could also be a factor, especially with a firm, fast track. Leishman was practicing 4-iron chips from around the green, while Smith and Jones figure to give the Rippers a huge advantage with their short game play.

Lucas Herbert noted practice sessions this week in which his teammate Jones was “hitting some phenomenal short game shots around the greens that if you haven’t grown up around these surfaces, you don’t think to play them like that.”

Concluded Herbert: “I just think it’s a massive advantage for us if the course is going to play firm and fast like we hope it does. We were asked before about two American winners. I think this year might lend itself to potentially an Australian winner if the course stays the way it’s playing at the minute.”

Sweeping both trophies is really the only way the Rippers can top last year. Their three-round lovefest begins Friday.