Dean Burmester won his first LIV Golf event after beating Sergio Garcia in a play-off at Trump National Doral in Miami, Florida.
The South African, who won twice on the DP World Tour during LIV Golf’s off-season over the winter, fired rounds of 68, 69 and 68 for a -11 total, a score which was matched by Garcia, who closed with a two-under 69 to reach the same total,
Garcia entered the final day with a two-shot lead but was eventually caught by multiple players. At one point on the back nine, five players – Burmester, Louis Oosthuizen, Garcia, Tyrrell Hatton and Matthew Wolff – shared the lead.
Burmester grabbed the outright lead with a birdie at the drivable 16th, but bogeyed the difficult par-4 18th after an errant drive.
Meanwhile, Garcia grabbed the lead with a 40-footer birdie putt at 17, but he three-putted the 18th to fall back into a tie and force the playoff.
DRAMA IN PLAY-OFF
After matching pars on the first play-off hole, Garcia found the water with his approach shot at the 18th, while Burmester safely landed on the green for a two-putt par to win.
“I feel like I’ve played some really great golf over the last five, six months,” said Burmester. “The two wins back home in South African before Christmas were special, two tournaments I’ve wanted to win for a long time.
To win the South African Open, which is the second oldest tournament in the world, is a privilege.
I thought I held myself really well there, and to come here on a difficult golf course like the Blue Monster, and to beat major champions – I’m happy to have done that.”
In the team event, Legion XIII captured their second title of the season by one shot after Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Scott Vincent and Caleb Surratt combined to score -22, beating Bubba Watson’s RangeGoats team by a single shot.
At one point on Sunday Rahm’s team had led by six shots, but they ended up clinging on by the minimum margin after Hatton played the back nine in three over par on Sunday, while Rahm was one over for his last nine holes.