Brooks Koepka defended his LIV Golf Jeddah title on Sunday, beating his American compatriot Talor Gooch in a playoff.
Regardless of shedding out on the day on the Royal Greens Golf and Nation Membership the 31-year-old Gooch walked away with the person season title, coming from behind to pip Australia’s Cameron Smith on the put up.
Smith led for a lot of the back-end of the season after wins in London and Bedminster, however completed poorly by coming fortieth in Chicago and twenty fifth in Jeddah.
Gooch pockets the highest $18 million (A$28.6) bonus prize for the season whereas Smith settles for an $8 million (A$12.7m) bonus.
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Gooch fired a remaining spherical eight-under par 62, forcing the playoff after runaway chief after the primary two rounds Koepka shot a 68.
Koepka was struggling on the greens and was even par by way of 15 holes. Nevertheless, he made a 30-footer birdie putt on the par-3 sixteenth when he wanted it, and closed with one other on the par-5 18th to meet up with the bogey-free Gooch.
Within the playoff, after tying at 14-under par, the duo made birdies on the primary further gap, earlier than Gooch dumped his second shot into the water to the left of the 18th inexperienced the second time.
Aside from claiming the $4 million winner’s cheque, Koepka additionally knocked Bryson DeChambeau out of third place within the season-long particular person standings, incomes one other $4 million (A$6.4m) bonus for ending third.
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– ‘Tremendous proud’ –
Koepka, who was concerned in a three-hole playoff with Peter Uihlein final 12 months, mentioned: “It’s been improbable.
“Anytime you’ll be able to win, it’s all the time a great feeling. Tremendous pleased with the way in which I performed right this moment. Felt like I used to be hitting good putts, they simply weren’t falling, after which it was only a matter of being affected person and hanging in there.”
Gooch, a three-time winner on LIV Golf this season, mentioned: “It’s superior. From January 1 till now, that’s what we’ve been working for, so to get right here and to be the champion… I’m proud, I’m honoured, and I’m excited.
“I used to be as nervous as I might be all evening final evening and this morning. We received to the primary tee and I knocked it on the inexperienced, made a 30-footer, and I simply settled in. It was a really tense day, very thrilling day, however my caddie and I simply did an ideal job of staying within the second and simply executing.”
In an thrilling battle to keep away from relegation and safe their playing cards for 2024, Zimbabwean Scott Vincent (12-under) climbed to twenty second place with a tied third end, which secures his taking part in privileges for 2024.
Austrian Bernd Wiesberger additionally made a giant transfer within the remaining spherical. A seven-under par 63 took him contained in the Open Zone (twenty fifth to forty fourth within the total standings), making him eligible for commerce and switch within the 2024 season.
Jeddah was the final occasion of the common LIV Golf season. It’s adopted subsequent week by the $50 million Group Championship in Miami.
Sergio Garcia’s Fireballs gained the workforce title in Jeddah, however the Bubba Watson-led RangeGoats gained essentially the most by advantage of their second-place end as they displaced the all-South African Stingers from the top-four.
Crushers, main after the second day, dropped to fifth after a disappointing remaining spherical.
That meant the all-American workforce 4Aces would be the prime seed and Crushers second in Miami. The highest 4 groups obtain a bye within the quarter-finals on Friday.