Chicago Recap: Rippers finish 12th but secure third bye for Dallas

BOLINGBROOK, Illinois – While Ripper GC did not replicate the cohesive form they have produced for much of this year, the all-Australian combination did enough at LIV Golf Chicago on Sunday to secure the third bye for next week's season-ending Team Championship in Texas.

Matt Jones was their best performer, closing with a 3-under 67 in challenging conditions at Bolingbrook Golf Club, while Marc Leishman and Lucas Herbert both closed with 68s and captain Cameron Smith signed off with a 74.

Although the Rippers' cumulative score for the week of even par was only good enough to earn them 12th place on the team leaderboard, they held off the twin challenge of Torque GC and Smash GC to claim the final bye in in Texas. Crushers GC and Legion XIII had already clinched the first two byes.

For a while during Sunday's final round, Torque snatched the tournament lead and they would have edged out the Rippers in the chase for that third bye had they held on for victory. However, Torque lost momentum before ending up in a tie for fifth, and the Rippers will now enjoy the luxury of skipping the first session of matchplay in Texas.

"We are all keen to have Friday off in Dallas," said Herbert, who ended up in a tie for sixth place at LIV Golf Chicago after narrowly missing out on securing a spot in LIV Golf's Lock Zone for next season.

"It was nerve-racking out there watching Torque play the way they did for the first nine holes, but yeah, it's nice to finish where we did and have that bye finally. It's fantastic."

The top 24 players in points after LIV Golf Chicago will have guaranteed spots in the 2025 LIV Golf League and Herbert, who was ranked 28th at the start of the week, came agonizingly close to securing his berth.

After making birdie on his opening hole, the par-5 third, he dropped shots at the fourth and sixth to slip to 2-under for the tournament. He then birdied the par-4 10th after spinning back a superb wedge approach to inside two feet.

A string of five consecutive pars followed before Herbert's putter got hot. He rolled in a 22-foot birdie putt from the fringe at the par-4 16th and a 16-footer at the par-3 17th to get to 5-under in a four-way tie for seventh place - but just outside the Lock Zone.

Herbert then made it three birdies in a row when he sank a 15-footer on the 18th green, and that moved him into the Lock Zone in projected 23rd place.

"On 16 and 17, I actually thought I hit terrible putts and they happened to go in," Herbert smiled. "It was like I finally got a break to go my way a little bit."

However, he bogeyed the par-4 first, after finding the left rough off the tee and a greenside bunker with his second, to slide back into 25th place - just outside the Lock Zone.

"Still, it was good to come back late at the end there and finish off another good top 10," said Herbert. "I wasn't really too concerned about the Lock Zone. I'll be on the Ripper GC team next year."

Although the Rippers have, for the most part, enjoyed a very successful LIV Golf season highlighted by two team victories, they did not shine as expected at Bolingbrook.

"The boys obviously struggled a bit this week, so I think we've got some work to do," said Herbert. "But I the more we play, the more we come into form, so I think it'll be good to be done with this week.

"I didn't see how the boys played today, but Jonesy was three under and I played pretty well and had a couple under. If we can carry a little bit of today's form into next week, we've got some formats probably working for us. Playing foursomes with Jonesy potentially might be a lot of fun. We're excited for next week, that's for sure."

The biggest surprise for the Rippers was the form of their captain Smith, who has established himself as one of the best players in LIV Golf but struggled to scores of 73, 73 and 74 at Bolingbrook.

"Everyone has off weeks," said Hebert. "I would certainly not be expecting it to happen two weeks in a row, put it that way. He's a very competitive boy, and playing like he did this week, I would assure you that that would fuel him to not play like that next week."