Cameron Smith wins The Players Championship with big putts and gutsy shot

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Cameron Smith made the longest week at The Players Championship worth the wait.

In a dynamic conclusion to five days of bad weather and high drama, Smith one-putted eight of his last nine holes with his pure stroke and delivered one of the gutsiest shots of his career for the cushion he needed to win.

Leading by two on the par-3 17th hole, 135 yards to the hole on an island green, Smith split the difference in the 12 feet that separated the flag from the water. The ball ended up 4 feet away and the Australian made his record-tying 10th birdie of the round.

Turns out he needed it. Smith punched out from the pine straw right of the 18th fairway all the way into the water. After a penalty drop, his 60-yard wedge spun next to the hole to 3 feet for a bogey and a 6-under 66, giving him a one-shot victory over Anirban Lahiri of India.

Lahiri, who started the final round with a one-shot lead, birdied the 17th and needed one more to force a playoff. He came up short of the green, and his pitch was below the cup all the way. He closed with a 69.

Paul Casey shot 69 and was the victim of a horrible break on the 16th hole when he was in position to edge closer to the lead.

Smith, who finished at 13-under 275, won for the second time this year, and the fifth time in his PGA Tour career, and picked up $3.6 million from the $20 million purse, the richest in golf.

This was about more than money, more than the three-year exemption he earned to the four majors and a five-year exemption on the PGA Tour.

This was as much about family. Smith, so unflappable in the tense pressure that featured 26 holes on Monday, choked up when he talked about his mother and sister, whom he had not seen more than two years because of