JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Defending champion Rose Zhang withdrew from the Mizuho Americas Open on Thursday because of illness after completing only three holes of the opening round.
Zhang started on the back nine at Liberty National. She shot par on No. 10, double bogey on 11 and par on 12.
Zhang, 20, ended Nelly Korda‘s record-tying run of winning five straight LPGA tournament starts by finishing first last week at the Cognizant Founders Cup. It was her first victory in almost a year.
TV schedule (May 14-19): May 14-15: Practice round show, 12-3 ET on ESPN+ May 16-17: Main coverage at 7 a.m. ET on ESPN+; 12 p.m. ET on ESPN May 18-19: Main coverage at 8 a.m. ET on ESPN+; 10 a.m. ET on ESPN
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Doug Barron shot a 6-under 66 for a share of the Regions Tradition lead with Ernie Els on Saturday, heading into the final round of the PGA Tour Champions’ first major of the season.
Els shot 70 with an eagle and a par-saving shot after sending the ball into the creek on No. 15 at Greystone. The World Golf Hall of Famer settled for par on the final hole, where Barron had birdied to catch up to him at 13-under 203.
“It was a tough day. We were kind of sizing each other up, myself and Steve,” Els said. “I made that great eagle on 2. I’m really finding it tough to read some of these putts. I made a soft bogey on 5 that really set me back.
“I kind of scrambled it around. I feel like I’m still playing pretty well.”
They were a shot ahead of Padraig Harrington, whose 69 included a double bogey on No. 11 after his tee shot landed out of bounds. But he rallied with a closing birdie, his fifth.
Two-time defending champion Steve Stricker (73) and Charlie Wi (70) were two shots back. Stricker remained near the leaders in his bid to match Jack Nicklaus‘ record four Tradition wins despite failing to make a single birdie. It’s his first time failing to card a round under par at the Tradition.
Els eagled the par-5 second hole before getting his first bogey of the tournament on No. 5. He saved par after his second shot on 15 went into the creek, hitting from the rough to within a few feet of the hole some 40 yards away. Els parred 17 after his birdie attempt from the bunker hit the flag stick.
A 19-time winner on the PGA Tour, Els is seeking his fourth victory on the 50-and-over circuit, with the latest being last year in the Hoag Classic.
Barron closed with his seventh birdie while his only bogey came on the third hole. He is seeking his first PGA Tour Champions win since the 2020 Shaw Charity Classic and third overall, while coming off a tie for second at the Mitsubishi Electric Classic.
But Barron knows he’s facing tough competition from better-known players like Stricker and Els.
“I don’t care who’s winning,” said Barron, who had one of his twin sisters on hand at Greystone. “So I’m just going to go out and do the best Doug Barron can do. I know what I can shoot. I can’t control all those other superstars.
“So I’ll just do the best I can do. I’m feeling good about my game, though. I will say that.”
Wi, who hasn’t won on the senior tour, made a long birdie putt to end his day.
Reigning U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark and Sweden’s Ludvig Åberg headline the roster of the Bay Golf Club, the California-based team in TGL presented by SoFi, the tech-infused golf league being fronted by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
The Bay Golf Club’s roster also includes Ireland’s Shane Lowry, the 2019 Open Championship winner, and Australia’s Min Woo Lee.
“It’s kind of cool having an international team,” Clark, who is American, told ESPN. “We all get along. We’ve had dinner together, and I’m friends with Shane and Min Woo and getting to know Ludvig better. I feel confident about our team, and it’s going to be fun.”
TGL’s inaugural season will tee off Jan. 7, 2025, in prime time on ESPN and ESPN+. The six-team league was scheduled to begin play Jan. 9, 2024, but the launch was delayed after a storm knocked out electricity to the temporary power system and backup system at the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, causing the dome to deflate and be damaged.
The league is constructing a 250,000-square-foot steel-supported structure.
“I feel more confident about the league,” Clark said. “I think it was probably a good thing that there was a delay in starting, so they could make sure everything was right from the start. I’m excited and looking forward to seeing what it looks like. I think a lot of us players, there’s some of the unknown, but what we do know is the people behind it are pretty powerful people.”
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Rory McIlroy will not return to the PGA Tour’s policy board as expected because of other player directors’ concerns about bringing him back, McIlroy said Wednesday.
McIlroy, who resigned from the policy board on Nov. 14, was expected to replace Webb Simpson on the PGA Tour policy board and the board of directors of PGA Tour Enterprises.
“There’s been a lot of conversations,” McIlroy said ahead of this week’s Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club. “Sort of reminded me partly why I didn’t [stay on the board]. So yeah, I think it got pretty complicated and pretty messy.
“I think with the way it happened, I think it opened up some old wounds and scar tissue from things that have happened before. I think there was a subset of people on the board that were maybe uncomfortable with me coming back on for some reason.”
Simpson, 38, will finish out his term, which expires in 2025. Simpson said he had planned to step down from both boards to spend time with his family.
“I think the best course of action is if, you know, there’s some people on there that aren’t comfortable with me coming back on, then I think Webb just stays on and sees out his term,” McIlroy said. “I think he’s gotten to a place where he’s comfortable with doing that, and I just sort of keep doing what I’m doing.”
McIlroy, the No. 2 golfer in the world, had joined the policy board in 2022 and was expected to serve through 2024. The 35-year-old cited personal and professional commitments in making his decision to leave the board late last year.
McIlroy’s surprising reversal comes at a time when the PGA Tour is attempting to negotiate a final agreement with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which finances the rival LIV Golf League. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and policy board player directors met with PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan in the Bahamas on March 18.
McIlroy has previously met with Al-Rumayyan to discuss the future of men’s professional golf. McIlroy said Al-Rumayyan wanted to do the “right thing” with PIF’s investment in golf.
He said some PGA Tour members have voiced concerns about potentially playing a global schedule outside the U.S. and whether to allow golfers who left for LIV Golf to come back to the tour.
With Simpson staying on the policy board, McIlroy said he is “still optimistic” that a deal with the PIF can get done.
“I think Webb staying on is a really good thing,” McIlroy said. “I think he’s got a really balanced voice in all of this, and I think he sees the bigger picture, which is great. My fear was if Webb stepped off and it wasn’t me that was going in his place, what could potentially happen? Yeah, I’m really happy that Webb has made that decision to stay on and serve out the rest of his term.”
McIlroy, who grew up in Northern Ireland, said both sides will have to compromise in good faith to get a deal done. He is frustrated that a deal hasn’t been finalized because “we’ve got this window of opportunity to get it done.”
While discussing what would have to happen to bring the fractured sport together, McIlroy invoked the Good Friday Agreement of April 10, 1998, which ended political unrest in Ireland and Northern Ireland that had occurred since the 1960s.
“Catholics weren’t happy, Protestants weren’t happy, but it brought peace, and then you just sort of learn to live with whatever has been negotiated, right?” McIlroy said. “That was in 1998 or whatever it was, and 20, 25, 30 years ahead, my generation doesn’t know any different. It’s just this is what it’s always been like, and we’ve never known anything but peace.
“That’s sort of my little, I guess, way of trying to think about it and trying to make both sides see that there could be a compromise here. Yeah, it’s probably not going to feel great for either side, but if it’s a place where the game of golf starts to thrive again and we can all get back together, then I think that’s ultimately a really good thing.”
McKINNEY, Texas — Taylor Pendrith tried his best to ignore Ben Kohles‘ final-hole meltdown, focusing on the eagle putt that the Canadian thought he might have to make even to force a playoff as he walked toward the 18th green.
Several stunning minutes later, a 3-footer for birdie gave Pendrith his first PGA Tour victory.
Kohles overtook Pendrith with birdies on Nos. 16 and 17 for a 1-shot lead, then bogeyed the 18th after hitting his second shot into greenside rough. Already in shock following two chips from the rough — the second with his feet in a bunker — Kohles missed a 6-foot putt that would have forced a playoff.
“Wasn’t really trying to pay attention to what they were doing, although it really mattered, obviously,” Pendrith said. “I feel for Ben. He played really, really good today, especially down the stretch. I’ve been on the other side of it a couple times, and it sucks. But it’s golf. It’s a hard game.”
Pendrith shot 4-under 67 for a 23-under 261 total at the TPC Craig Ranch. The 32-year-old won in his 74th career PGA Tour start.
Playing just north of his birthplace of Dallas, Kohles shot 66 to finish a stroke back. The 34-year-old, who plays out of North Carolina and is winless in 68 starts, was the only player to bogey the 18th Sunday.
“Honestly, hadn’t seen any rough like that all week,” said Kohles, who moved to North Carolina when he was 10. “Just needed a little bit more umph on it. Did so many good things this week, and I’m just going to keep reminding myself of that and try to get myself back in this position.”
Alex Noren, a Swedish player also seeking a first PGA Tour victory, was another stroke back. He wowed the crowd on the stadium hole at the par-3 17th with a tee shot to 2½ feet, but followed that birdie with a par knowing he probably needed an eagle on 18. Noren shot 65 and was alone in third at 21 under.
Aaron Rai and first-round leader Matt Wallace of England were at 20 under along with the South Korean pair of S.H. Kim and Byeong Hun An. Rai and Kim shot 64, An 65 and Wallace 68.
Pendrith, the third-round leader, and Kohles were separated by just 1 shot or tied most of the day. After Kohles made a 20-footer to take the lead on 17, Pendrith’s par putt rolled all the way around the cup and went in.
“It just curled in, that putt, on the last second there, which was unreal just to give me a chance,” said Pendrith. He had set it up with a chip from an awkward stance, with his heels hanging over the lip of a bunker, after saving par with another testy putt at the par-4 16th.
The victory qualified Pendrith for the PGA Championship in two weeks and next year’s Masters. He’s also in the next three $20 million signature events, starting next week with the Wells Fargo championship. Kohles and Noren also played their way into Wells Fargo with their Nelson showings.
With Wells Fargo and the PGA coming in the next two weeks, just three of the top 30 in the world ranking were in the field.
Jordan Spieth, the highest at No. 20, missed the cut for just the second time in 12 appearances at his hometown event. Defending champion Jason Day (22nd) and Tom Kim (23rd) didn’t contend, with Day finishing 1 shot behind Kim at 9 under.
Jake Knapp, the second-round leader who three years ago was working as a security guard in his home state of California, shot 70 to finish at 19 under. Knapp and Wallace were the only players in the top eight with a previous PGA Tour win.
The start of the final round was pushed back 2½ hours because of overnight rain, and pairings turned into threesomes going off both tees with the players allowed to lift, clean and place shots in the fairway.
Wallace appeared to start a charge by chipping in for birdie at 12, the toughest hole of the week, and getting another birdie at the par-4 13th. A three-putt bogey on the par-3 15th stalled him out.
Rafael Campos, a 13-year journeyman from Puerto Rico who has spent most of his career on satellite tours, birdied five of the first six holes starting on the back nine to make the turn at 29.
The 36-year-old cooled off on his second nine before making a 48-foot putt from off the green for eagle on the par-5 ninth for a 63 that put him at 18 under.
Taiga Semikawa, a 23-year-old from Japan playing on a sponsor exemption, also finished at 18 after a 64.
Kris Kim, a 16-year old amateur making his PGA Tour debut, had a rough finish as the youngest to play a final round on tour in 10 years.
Playing his final nine on the front, the son of South Korean-born former LPGA Tour player Ji-Hyun Suh had four bogeys and shot 73 to finish 6 under.
Kim, who is from England, played on a sponsor exemption from the South Korean company and tournament title sponsor CJ Group.
Kris Kim, a 16-year-old English amateur playing on a sponsor exemption at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, became the youngest player in 11 years to make the cut in a PGA Tour event.
Kim finished his second round Friday with a birdie for a 4-under 67. At 7-under 135, he was among 66 players who made the cut, which was 6 under. Jake Knapp was the leader at 14-under 128.
Guan Tianlang was 14 when he made the cut at both the Masters and Zurich Classic of New Orleans in 2013, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
At 16 years, 7 months old, Kim is the fifth-youngest player ever to make a PGA Tour cut, according to the Tour. His feat also comes just two weeks after Miles Russell, 15, became the youngest to make the cut in the 35-year history of the Korn Ferry Tour.
Kim, who is the son of former LPGA Tour player and South Korea native Ji-Hyun Suh, is making his PGA Tour debut. He is the first amateur sponsored by South Korean company CJ Group, which is the title sponsor of the Nelson for the first time.
“I’m happy,” Kim said. “I can’t wait to get started again tomorrow. I’ve enjoyed it so much the last couple days, and being here two more days makes it so much sweeter.”
A first-time Tour winner earlier this year, Knapp enters the weekend with sole possession of the lead after a second consecutive 7-under 64 in McKinney, Texas. He was a stroke ahead of Troy Merritt (62) and first-round leader Matt Wallace (66) and 2 ahead of Kelly Kraft (66).
“Even when I was doing any of that stuff, I always knew this was what I wanted to do and felt like it’s where I should be. Just wasn’t there yet,” said Knapp, just more than two years removed from working security at a restaurant in his hometown that was also a late-night hotspot. “Just kept working away and sticking at it.”
Merritt closed his season-low round with an eagle at the 531-yard ninth hole, where he hit his approach to 16 feet and made the putt. He had birdied four of the previous six holes.
Wallace finished on the same par 5 later in the day and saved par after driving into a native area and then chunking a shot from there to under a bridge.
Hometown favorite Jordan Spieth, the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 20, shot a 70 to finish at 4-under 138 and miss the cut by 2 strokes. On the 16th, his wayward drive ricocheted off the elbow of a male spectator back into the fairway. Spieth still bogeyed the hole then parred his last two.
Defending champion Jason Day closed his round with a 35-foot par putt for a 70 and was just on the cut line at 6-under 136.
Knapp’s only bogey through the first two rounds was on his 12th hole Friday, the dogleg No. 3, where his drive went into the left rough. But he birdied four of his last six holes, that stretch starting with a 32-foot putt at the par-3, 192-yard fourth hole.
“Obviously, a putt you’re not trying to make,” he said. “Hit it a little bit harder than I would’ve liked and luckily it was on a good line and went in.”
Knapp, who turns 30 on May 31, lost his card on the developmental Korn Ferry Tour before taking the part-time job in the fall of 2021 at the place in Costa Mesa, California, where for nearly nine months he worked Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights — often until 2 or 3 a.m. The former UCLA player would practice and go to the gym in between his work shifts.
He got his third win on PGA Tour Canada in August 2022 and last year earned his PGA Tour card by finishing the season 13th on the Korn Ferry Tour. He won the Mexico Open in his fifth start this season, and his ninth overall, including two as an amateur in 2015.
His PGA Tour biography also touts that he can solve a Rubik’s Cube, loves to work out and would pursue a career in the fitness industry if he weren’t playing golf.
“Yeah, few interesting ones about me,” Knapp said. “I do my best to, I’m kind of a golf-only guy. Just play a lot of golf and practice a lot. That’s been my focus for the last four, five years.”
At TPC Craig Ranch north of Dallas, Knapp hit 16 of 18 greens each of the first two rounds. He had the same number of putts (28) both days, though the combined distance of those shots on the greens went from 75 feet on Thursday to 139 feet on Friday.
“For the most part hitting it pretty solid and keeping in the right areas. Made it relatively easy on myself.” Knapp said. “Early on in the year felt like I was putting well, and for the last month or so the stroke felt the same and ball wasn’t going in the hole. … Nice to see a few more going in.”
Merritt opened his round with consecutive birdies before a three-putt bogey at No. 12, though he got that stroke right back with a 52-foot chip-in at No. 13. He made only his second cut in his past six tournaments, finishing 67th in the other one.
“It’s fantastic, especially when you hit the ball solid and making a lot putts,” said Merritt, who is in his 331st PGA Tour event and last won in 2018. “You’re not accidentally there. You’ve actually played well to get there. I haven’t done that. I’ve accidently backdoored a couple top-10s last fall.”
Seemingly stalled merger talks could build a bridge between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour, but nearly 11 months since the potential agreement became public, Brooks Koepka cleared up what he believes is a public misconception.
“I mean, the merger is also between PIF (Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund) and the PGA Tour,” Koepka said Thursday at Sentosa Golf Club, site of LIV Singapore. “I think that’s the difference. It’s not LIV Golf, it’s the PIF and the PGA TOUR. I think that’s something that needs to be well known.
“Look, we have no idea. The PGA Tour has no idea. Our job is to go play golf, and that’s it. That’s what we’re here to do. But I think it’s important that the merger is that way.”
Koepka said he’s focused on fixing his putting this week with the PGA Championship at Valhalla two weeks away. He is the defending PGA Championship winner, taking his third Wanamaker Trophy at Oak Hill in 2023. But his game isn’t in the same place by his own assessment following a 45th-place finish at Augusta National last month. Koepka was 20 shots off the pace of winner Scottie Scheffler.
Koepka is 16th in LIV Golf’s individual standings and working primarily on his short game. He lamented Thursday that he left Georgia last month with the feeling he wasted the four-month buildup to the tournament, which was anchored by a transition from a button-back style putter in his bag for a dozen years to a mallet putter.
“Something we’ve just been putting some work into, so trying to find some answers,” Koepka said.
Asked to describe the main issues with his putting at the moment, Koepka quipped: “The ball doesn’t go in the hole, that is usually one of them. I don’t know how else to simply put it. I feel like I’m hitting good putts, they just keep burning lips. Eventually it starts to wear on you after a while. All you can do is hit a good putt and see where it goes from there. Hopefully they start falling soon.”
Bryson DeChambeau was in the final pairing with Max Homa on Saturday at the Masters but was left in Scheffler’s wake and tied for sixth.
He said more LIV golfers are certain to be in contention in majors with three on the schedule in the next three months.
“I think us LIV golfers are prepared as ever to play major championships,” DeChambeau said, adding the lighter tournament scheduled “allows us the opportunity to have a little bit more time every once in a while to get ready for those majors. But I think we all have the firepower to play well and win a major championship. There’s a lot of major champions over here that know how to get it done, so it’s just a matter of time.”
DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson agreed with Koepka’s statement that LIV Golf is strong and has staying power, regardless of how “merger” talks progress.
Mickelson was among the players hailed with a rock-star treatment last week at Adelaide in Australia and finds Singapore to be more energetic about LIV’s arrival this time around.
“There’s also a lot of uncertainty. I think the things that I do know is I think the quality of the players will continue to get better each year,” Mickelson said of the future of LIV Golf. “I think that the ability and the sites that we move throughout the world will continue to excite players and excite fans. We’ll be going to more countries outside of the United States that really are starving for world-class professional golf, and we’ll have a lot more receptions like we had at Adelaide.”
NEW ORLEANS — Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry received a standing ovation when they showed up at historic, creole French Quarter restaurant Arnaud’s on the eve of their final round at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans team event.
They also had the largest, loudest galleries at the TPC Louisiana, where the charismatic, 34-year-old McIlroy, had not previously played.
“He’s getting old, but he still moves the needle a little bit,” Lowry joked as McIlroy chuckled. “Rory brings a crowd and people love him and we’ve gotten a lot of love in New Orleans. We’ve had just the best week.”
McIlroy and Lowry won Sunday, beating Chad Ramey and Martin Trainer with a nervy par on the first hole of a playoff.
Trainer pushed a 6-foot par putt to the right of the cup to end it, with Lowry lifting a laughing McIlroy off the ground with a bear hug on the green.
“To win any PGA Tour event is very cool, but to do it with one of your closest friends — we’ve known each other for a long, long time, probably like over 20 years,” McIlroy said. “To think about where we met and where we’ve come from, to be on this stage and do this together — really, really cool journey that we’ve been a part of.”
McIlroy, of Northern Ireland, won his 25th PGA Tour title and first of the season. Lowry, of Ireland, claimed his third PGA Tour victory. Each walked away with about $1.29 million and 400 FedEx Cup points apiece.
“People have come out in the thousands to support us. It’s not lost on me how cool that is,” McIlroy said. “Every time I get to play in front of thousands of people, the little boy in me just thinks it’s so cool and so exciting.”
The Irish tandem closed with a 4-under 68 in the alternate-shot final round in windy conditions to match Ramey and Trainer at 25-under 263.
Ramey and Trainer began the day tied for 27th at 16 under and shot to the top of the leaderboard with nine birdies between the seventh and 18th holes. They tied the alternate-shot tournament record of 63, but then had to wait nearly three hours to see if their lead would stand up.
“That was to our advantage,” McIlroy said. “I feel for Martin and Chad a little bit. They played an unbelievable round of golf. To shoot 63 out there in those conditions in foursomes is super impressive.”
Trainer opened the playoff hole by pulling his drive into the left rough. Ramey also yanked his approach left off the cart path and into the wall below the suites around the 18th green. Trainer then chipped short before Ramey finally got his team on the green.
“Obviously, golf is hard, and sometimes it doesn’t go your way,” Trainer said. “We did the best we could and had a chance, and that’s all you can ask for, really.”
Ramey said he and Trainer were disappointed, but stressed that, “There’s a lot of really good things to take from this week, and that’s what I’m going to do.”
“To win any PGA Tour event is very cool, but to do it with one of your closest friends — we’ve known each other for a long, long time, probably like over 20 years. To think about where we met and where we’ve come from, to be on this stage and do this together — really, really cool journey that we’ve been a part of.”
Rory McIlroy
Lowry narrowly missed his mark twice on the playoff hole, putting an approach in a bunker and then leaving a birdie putt for the victory on the edge of the cup.
But Lowry had come through when he had to on the final regulation hole, forcing the playoff with a short birdie putt on the par-5 18th, capitalizing on McIlroy’s deft lofted chip from the apron that stopped close to the pin.
Ryan Brehm and Mark Hubbard nearly made the playoff as well. Needing a birdie, they went long off the 18th green on their second shot. Hubbard’s chip up the back apron stopped short on the fringe, but Brehm still nearly sank a birdie putt, leaving the ball near the right edge of the cup as the crowd gasped. They finished third at 24 under.
Former BYU teammates Patrick Fishburn and Zach Blair, the leaders through three rounds, were still tied for the lead heading to the par-3 17th, only to make a double bogey after Blair’s tee shot landed right of the green and Fishburn chipped short. They wound up in a four-way tie for fourth at 23 under.
McIlroy and Lowry began the day two shots off the lead. They opened the round with Lowry’s tee shot into the woods on the right side of the hole, and they bogeyed two of their first three holes before beginning their charge on the seventh, where McIlroy made the first of four birdie putts over the next five holes.
McIlroy had two mishits down the stretch that could have been costly, leaving an approach shot well short of the green on the par-4 13th and hitting short into a fairway bunker on the short par-4 16th.
Lowry chipped to about 10 feet, and McIlroy saved par on 13. On 16, Lowry found the left side of the green with his approach shot from the sand and McIlroy sank a right-breaking birdie putt to lift his team into a tie for first at 25-under.
“Being able to rely on each other a little bit, I think that’s what really helped us,” McIlroy said.
The Irishmen bogeyed 17 after Lowry’s faded tee shot landed in the gallery right of the green and McIlroy’s chip over the ridge of a bunker ran past the hole.
That meant they would have to have a birdie on 18 to force a playoff. They got it, starting with McIlroy’s clutch, booming tee shot into the water-lined fairway.
Before leaving the TPC Louisiana grounds, McIlroy and Lowry walked on stage while the New Orleans-based 1980s cover band The Molly Ringwalds was performing a post-tournament concert. The band gave McIlroy a microphone, and he serenaded the crowd, singing Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin.'”
“The reason that Shane and I both started to play golf is because we thought it was fun at some stage in our life,” McIlroy said. “Reinjecting a little bit of that fun back into it in a week like this week, it can always help.”
ADELAIDE, Australia — Three-time PGA Tour winner Brendan Steele held off a fast-finishing Louis Oosthuizen to win the LIV Golf Adelaide tournament at The Grange Golf Club by 1 stroke.
Steele, 41, shot a final-round 68 on Sunday for a 54-hole total of 18-under 198 to earn his first victory since he won his second Safeway Open in 2017 on the PGA Tour.
Steele had a streak of five consecutive birdies early in the round before some putting jitters appeared in his back nine to open the door for a pack of challengers including Oosthuizen and previous Masters winners Charl Schwartzel (64) and Jon Rahm (64).
“I was telling myself that I knew there was going to be hard moments today regardless of the result and that I just needed to get back in there and start playing with freedom again,” Steele said moments after winning. “And I was able to hit some good shots after that and write the show.”
South Africa’s Oosthuizen shot 65 to finish second at 17-under 199. He had drawn within 1 stroke of Steele late in Sunday’s final round, only for the American to make some clutch pars in the final holes to clinch victory.
Oosthuizen’s compatriot Schwartzel and Rahm were among a group of five players at 16-under 200, with Joaquín Niemann (66), Andy Ogletree (65) and Dean Burmester (67) in a tie for third.
Former world No. 1 Rahm had an eagle and six birdies in his 8-under 64 but had left too much ground to catch up to Steele on the final day and win his first title since joining LIV Golf in December.
Last year’s winner Talor Gooch shot 70 and finished in a tie for 26th at 10-under.
Australian team Ripper GC, led by local favorite Cameron Smith, with Marc Leishman, Matt Jones and Lucas Herbert, won the teams format on the second playoff hole against the South African-based team Stingers GC to the delight of another large and boisterous crowd at The Grange course Sunday.
LIV remains in the Asia region next week for the May 3-5 Singapore event at the Sentosa Golf Club. Then there’s a monthlong break before resuming in Houston from June 7-9.
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The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
