Jordan Smith Secures Dominant Portugal Masters Victory

Jordan Smith secured his second title on the DP World Tour, with the Englishman displaying a putting masterclass to win the Portugal Masters by three shots and, in the process, propel himself into the top-10 of the DP World Tour rankings.

The 29-year-old dominated from start to finish, hurtling through the week in sensational fashion by posting rounds of 62,67,62, while a final round score of 63 cemented a -30 finish and Smith’s first victory since the Porsche European Open in 2017.

Smith began the final round two ahead of Gavin Green, maintaining a bogey free card en-route to victory. Green had kept his opponent on his toes, only dropping one shot on the 14th hole, but the leader couldn’t be caught in such form.

The top two were leaps and bounds ahead of the field, as Tapio Pulkkanen finished in third on -22 and Englishman, Eddie Pepperell, made a late surge to finish -21. 

Alongside Smith and Green, within the final group, was Sebastian Heisele, who eventually finished 11 shots behind Smith in his final professional tournament, as he is set to retire and pursue a career in coaching. 

Smith was very emotional in his post round interview and simply couldn’t find the words to explain his feelings before dedicating his performance to his close friend who sadly passed away this year.

“That pitch from 100 yards from under that tree on 11, to get up and down and hit it to five foot was a f*****g massive momentum part of the round. Yeah, I’m just really happy with how I've done this year.”

A new putter and grip coincidentally helped Smith out this week, as he displayed a new-found confidence on the greens and reaped the rewards with 27 birdies and 3 eagles over the week, expressing his thanks to putting coach, Matt Johns. 

Smith’s aggregate score of -30 is an incredibly rare achievement in the sport, with the most recent feat coming at the 2022 Sentry Of Champions, where Cameron Smith shot -34 to set a new 72 hole record. 

Although Jordan Smith’s record won’t be counted this time, due to the Portugal Masters being played under preferred lies, he is technically one shot better than previous records on the DP World Tour, set by Thaworn Wiratchant in 2005 and Garrick Higgo in 2021.