HAWAII (REUTERS/ASSOCIATED PRESS) - Cameron Smith won the PGA Tour's Sony Open in Hawaii on Sunday (Jan 12) after the Australian made up a three-stroke deficit in the final round and then beat overnight leader Brendan Steele in a playoff.

Smith hit a par-four on the first hole of the decider and watched Steele, who had led for most of the final round, bogey the hole.

The 26-year-old Australian had earlier birdied the 18th to force a playoff after Steele bogeyed two of the last six holes to miss out on what would have been his fourth PGA Tour victory.

"Just had to hang in there. No one was playing good golf today, it seemed like," Smith said after a 68. "Just hung in there, and what do you know?"

Steele was trying to win for the first time in just over two years. This was hard to take.

"Everything that could go wrong went wrong today," he said. He closed with a 71.

It was Smith's second PGA Tour win following his 2017 triumph in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.