Keys to Ripper’s Team Championship win? Friendship, national pride – and the Gladiator

CARROLLTON, Texas – They’re calling it “Mad Monday” but it’ll likely last multiple days, a celebration worthy of four tight-knit Australians who’ve just achieved their biggest collective goal, the LIV Golf Team Championship. The captain is hosting it at his Florida residence.

RELATED: Ripper GC wins Team Championship | Full Team Championship Highlights | Team Championship Event Page

Just like their footy teams do back home with their “Mad Monday” parties, the guys will dress up in costumes. Photos will be taken – but no evidence will be made public. It promises to reach epic proportions. Excessive is a goal, not a deterrent.

“I’ve never been this scared in my life,” said Marc Leishman, who was joking. We think.

Play hard. Party hard. This is Ripper GC in a nutshell – and it’s their not-so-secret formula to success. They enjoy a good time together, but they also enjoy winning together. Never has that been more evident than their weekend at Maridoe Golf Club.

On Saturday, they survived a hard-fought matchup against Sergio Garcia and his Fireballs GC, with Leishman and Lucas Herbert each rallying to win their singles matches after captain Cameron Smith and Matt Jones lost in foursomes.

On Sunday, facing three other determined teams in the stroke-play championship tier, the Rippers finished strong with multiple clutch birdies to emerge out of a tightly packed leaderboard with the crown. It wasn’t a done deal until Smith, playing in the final group, landed his tee shot safely in the 18th fairway.

“That was special,” Leishman said. “So cool, just the anticipation of the celebration. … My favorite moment of the year.”

Given his difficulties with the driver this year, Smith took full advantage of his teammate’s reflections to make a self-deprecating comment. “Even they’re excited when I hit a fairway,” he said with a smile.

Although Smith finished with three runner-up finishes in LIV Golf this season, he did not win an individual title; he won two last year to earn second place in the season-long race. In this year’s majors, his lone quality result was a tie for sixth at the Masters; he did not make the cut at The Open, which he won in 2022.

It was, in his words, a “solid season” and a “very good year technically” as he made strides with his golf swing, but a “frustrating” year because his feel-good range sessions didn’t always transfer to the course.

Thanks to LIV Golf’s team component, though, 2024 will go down as one of the most productive and memorable seasons of Smith’s career, with three team victories and multiple high points.

The first came in late April at LIV Golf Adelaide when the Rippers won the league’s first-ever team playoff in front of their raucous home fans, a record 94,000 attending the three-day tournament. Both Smith and Herbert consider it their favorite moment of the year without hesitation.

“Impossible to top Adelaide,” Herbert said. “Just the way that all unfolded – the playoff, the drama, just the way the public got behind us. There couldn’t have been a better event than that.”

The plane ride to Singapore the next day was nearly as memorable, a sort of Mad Monday-training flight. “We pushed pretty hard there,” Jones admitted. Yet the Rippers showed the Aussie victory was no home-cooked fluke, adding a second consecutive team win on Sentosa’s tough Serapong course.

“Really special to back it up in Singapore,” Smith said.

Then, to end the season with the Team Championship, especially the way it unfolded – the leaderboard constantly churning, the Rippers overcoming bits of adversity, making clutch shots, fighting from behind – was extremely fulfilling. For Jones, it was like reaching the summit after a challenging climb.

“It’s tough to beat winning in Australia,” he said. “But to win here with these boys … it’s tough to beat this one, too, because we looked down and out. For us to come back and do it the way we did, I’d probably say this one right now.”

It may not have happened without the addition of Herbert, who filled the roster spot created after Jed Morgan’s relegation after 2023. Smith and Herbert have a friendship that dates to their junior days, although they eventually went their separate routes as their careers progressed.

With one PGA Tour and three European Tour victories, Herbert stepped into the Ripper lineup as a proven winner. More important, he easily slipped into the camaraderie that’s such an important part of the team’s success. He also earned a nickname – The Gladiator.

“He loves it,” Smith said, pointing to Herbert. “Look at him.”

“Did his chest poke out a little bit there?” laughed Jones. “Definitely worse names to be called,” Herbert shrugged.

Asked how much of a difference Herbert made, Smith replied: “Massive. Not only as a player but just the way he works, being around him. He makes you want to be better. He’s made everyone better for it. He’s been a massive asset – and he will be for years to come for the Rippers.”

While talent inside the ropes remains the biggest factor in winning trophies, each team’s bond and chemistry is the X factor, the potential difference-maker.

The first two LIV Golf Team Champions – 4Aces GC in 2022, Crushers GC in 2023 – certainly had their own successful mixes. While that winning Aces’ lineup has since changed, the Crushers remain intact, three father/uncle types in Paul Casey, Charles Howell III and Anirban Lahiri supporting their superstar captain Bryson DeChambeau.

Although Smith is the Rippers’ star attraction, and Jones and Leishman the most experienced voices in the team room, the Aussies are not built with that family-type structure in mind. They’re just four mates who enjoy each other’s company, whether it’s during a practice round or inside a dark pub. And unlike the Crushers, with players born in three different countries, the Rippers share the same nationality, the same Aussie mentality. They represent an entire country, and it fuels their desire.

Smith couldn’t help but notice all the Ripper caps worn in Dallas. “We’ve got the best fans and the best traveling fans,” he said. “They’re everywhere.”

More important, he enjoys having the best teammates. They proved it in two pressure-packed days in Dallas to become champions.

“When you have guys that you genuinely care about, those moments out there with three or four holes to go – we’re pulling for each other. You can’t replicate that,” Smith said. “That’s a feeling that only friends really get. Teammates is a cool thing, and of course you’re playing for your team and all that stuff. But wanting to win as friends is almost cooler.”

Celebrating with those friends is equally cool. But please, no photo-sharing. What happens in Cam’s house, stays in Cam’s house.