HAYES: Ripper GC – You’ll do Me!

Cards on the table, I love all four members of Team Ripper GC.

They’re all champion golfers, but Matt Jones, Marc Leishman, Cam Smith and Lucas Herbert are all – as the highest praise one Aussie male can give to another – great blokes.

Truly.

You are entitled to your views on LIV Golf, but I love it … and that heightened even further this year when “our” Ripper blokes got among it and won the team’s title on the breakaway tour.

To be honest, I was cheering them home at the Dallas finale almost as loudly as I once did when Messrs Norman, Graham, Marsh and Davis won the Dunhill Cup representing Australia back in the 1980s in what was unofficially the world team championship.

Victories and their parties aside, Smith and company this year – to me – put something back into golf that has been sorely missing.

Team spirit.

Smith, on his extremely commendable push around the Australian summer of golf, has been asked a lot of questions in his almost daily press conferences.

And it’s almost a constant within them that he’ll speak of how being part of Ripper GC has sharpened all the team members’ drive when they convene.

It might be professionalism, it might be patriotism, or it might even be just a determination not to let down a mate. Whatever it is, they’re clearly driven and not dialling it in for the big bucks, as some knockers of LIV once suggested all the rebels would.

And if you needed proof, Herbert is your man.

Don’t get me wrong, “Herbie” is an extremely well-credentialled player. He’s a three-time European Tour winner and a winner on the US PGA Tour, which, before any other achievements, puts him towards the pointy end of our golfing export list.

But he’s better now, even if he claims he’s come in rusty to this week’s Ford New South Wales Open.
And if a pair of 65s to lead at halfway at Murray Downs isn’t all the proof you require, how about this from Smith, the man who sees him constantly in LIV-land.

“He’s improved as a professional … a lot,” Smith said.

“At the start of the year he was, you know, still a great player, but just didn’t have the little things that really good professionals do.

“Learning off guys like `Leish’ and Matty (Jones) and all the other guys out there that you get to spend time with just leads to better choices and better decisions out on the golf course and in life.

“He keeps improving as a player, which is great, particularly when he’s on my team.”

And now Smith, two back from his teammate in second place, has to combat the monster he helped build this weekend.

“Yeah, we’re still wearing the same (Ripper) hat, but you know that’s about it this week,” he said with a wry smile.”

For his part, Herbert agrees that he’s “100%” an improved unit for his time with Ripper, with Smith having played a central part in his transition.

“Obviously, I’ve worked my arse off over the years to get my game to a level where I was given the opportunity, but I’m very grateful the opportunity came along when it did,” Herbert said.

“The improvement I’ve seen all round in my game this year (can) massively be attributed to the way those guys have, in a way, mentored me.

“Just a lot of little things … the way they go about things, the way they practice, how early they get to the course and how early I don’t get to the course,” he joked.

“We have a hell of a lot of fun out here and on tour, but we also get a hell of a lot of work done, too. And you know, this year was a testament to that, obviously, winning team championship, you can’t do that if we don’t play really high-quality golf.”

And if you need any more proof of Herbert’s improvement, his answer to a question about the possibility of a shootout with his mate and boss this weekend is surely enough.

“Yep, absolutely,” he bounced straight back.

“Whether I win or lose, I’ll learn a hell of a lot, and it’ll be a hell of a lot of fun, so I hope we both play really well tomorrow, break away from the field, it becomes a shootout (and we) push each other to play the golf we know we both can.

“I think everyone wins from that situation.”