Danny Lee captured his first professional victory in eight years when winning a four-man play-off at the second LIV Golf event of the season at The Gallery Golf Club in Tuscon, Arizona.
The 32-year-old Kiwi, who only joined the Saudi-backed breakaway tour last month, beat Carlos Ortiz, Brendan Steele and Louis Oosthuizen at the third extra hole with a birdie, having missed a chance to win at the previous hole. Lee’s last win came at the PGA Tour’s Greenbrier Classic in 2015, which also involved a four-man play-off.
“Maybe it was a coincidence, I don’t know,” Lee said. “But it feels pretty amazing right now. I haven’t won since 2015. I just felt like winning is just not my thing, but today just changed that. It’s just good to see I’m capable of playing some good golf again.”
South Korea-born Lee, who is currently 267th in the world rankings, earned $4m for the individual first prize and $125,000 as a share of the third-place team prize.
Second-round leader Marc Leishman opened the door for Lee and his rivals with bogeys in two of his first three holes. Charles Howell III, the individual winner in the season-opening LIV Golf Mayakoba, held a two-shot lead after getting his round to -4 after six holes, but a triple-bogey at the par-3 eighth brought him back to the pack.
Ortiz was making his run with five birdies in his first nine holes before suffering a double bogey at the 10th. Eventually, Oosthuizen became the front-runner, but he suffered three bogeys in a four-hole stretch late in the round, and when he bogeyed the par-3 16th, there was a four-way tie for the lead.
Lee, Steele and Ortiz each finished at 9 under, while Oosthuizen, playing in the lead group, was 8 under after a bogey at the par-5 17th. But he knocked his approach shot close into 18 and made the birdie putt to join the playoff. From there, it took three more trips through the 18th hole for Lee to post the only birdie of the playoff – and make his long-awaited return to the winner’s circle.
In the team competition, Fireballs, captained by Sergio Garcia, won by four strokes over 4Aces GC, with Lee’s Iron Heads claiming third for the team’s first-ever podium finish. The Fireballs become just the second team to claim multiple titles, having won last year at the LIV Golf Invitational Bangkok.
TEAM SCORES
- FIREBALLS GC (-25): Carlos Ortiz 65, Abraham Ancer 72, Sergio Garcia 73 (Rd. 3 total: -3)
- 4ACES GC (-21): Patrick Reed 66, Dustin Johnson 68, Peter Uihlein 68 (Rd. 3 total: -11)
- IRON HEADS GC (-19): Scott Vincent 69, Danny Lee 69, Kevin Na 71 (Rd. 3 total: -4)
- STINGER GC (-16): Louis Oosthuizen 70, Branden Grace 70, Charl Schwartzel 72. (Rd. 3 total: -1)
- RIPPER GC (-16): Matt Jones 69, Cameron Smith 70, Jediah Morgan 75 (Rd. 3 total: +1)
- HYFLYERS GC (-15): Brendan Steele 70, Cameron Tringale 74, Phil Mickelson 75 (Rd. 3 total: +6)
- TORQUE GC (-14): Mito Pereira 67, David Puig 71, Joaquin Niemann 73 (Rd. 3 total: -2)
- RANGEGOATS GC (-12): Talor Gooch 69, Harold Varner III 71, Bubba Watson 73 (Rd. 3 total: E)
- CRUSHERS GC (-12): Paul Casey 70, Charles Howell III 71, Bryson DeChambeau 73 (Rd. 3 total: +1)
- SMASH GC (-8): Matthew Wolff 72, Brooks Koepka 73, Jason Kokrak 73 (Rd. 3 total: +5)
- CLEEKS GC (-5): Richard Bland 68, Graeme McDowell 72, Bernd Wiesberger 72 (Rd. 3 total: -1)
- MAJESTICKS GC (-4): Sam Horsfield 70, Lee Westwood 73, Ian Poulter 74 (Rd. 3 total: +4)