On a challenging course in the Texas heat, a pair of Lone Star stars hoisted trophies Sunday at LIV Golf Dallas presented by Aramco.
Related: Patrick Reed, 4Aces holds the cards ahead of Dallas’ Sunday
Crushers GC, captained by Dallas-area resident Bryson DeChambeau, won its third consecutive tournament in commanding fashion, an 11-shot victory that matches the biggest winning team margin this season. It’s a league-best eighth regular season title for the Crushers, and their ninth overall including the 2023 Team Championship.
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Houston-area resident Patrick Reed won his first LIV Golf individual title and his first pro tournament of any kind in his native state. The 4Aces GC star rolled in a 16-1/2 foot birdie putt on the 18th green to win a dramatic four-man playoff that included Stinger GC captain Louis Oosthuizen, Iron Heads GC’s Jinichiro Kozuma, and the Crushers’ Paul Casey.
Both celebrations were emotional.
For DeChambeau, it was a fitting result for a tournament he promoted heavily in his hometown. His efforts paid off, as more than 50,000 fans attended the event across the three days of championship golf and live music, with Saturday’s attendance of more than 20,000 setting a new LIV Golf single-day record in the U.S.
“Dallas showed up, and this is what I expected. This is what I thought. This is what I thought was possible,” said the two-time U.S. Open champion, who shot a final-round 68 to finish tied for ninth at 4 under on the individual leaderboard. “Our team showed up.
“I’ve just got to say I’m super thankful to Dallas and super thankful for the team for playing as well as they did.”
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For Reed, it was a long-anticipated individual title in his 41st regular-season LIV Golf start. Although he’s celebrated seven team victories with the 4Aces, he’s been arguably the best golfer without an individual win. Meanwhile, his last win in Texas came as a junior golfer.
“I don’t like hearing those numbers, that it took me 41 times just to win out here,” Reed said. “It took too long, I felt like, but to check two things off and win for the first time on LIV and also doing it in my home state means a lot.”
It didn’t come easy at Maridoe.
Reed entered the final round with a three-shot lead that immediately grew to five shots after the first hole after playing companions Casey and Abraham Ancer suffered double-bogeys.
But Reed fell back to the pack with five bogeys during a seven-hole stretch on his front nine. By the time he had reached the turn, he had lost the lead to Legion XIII’s Tyrrell Hatton.
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He steadied himself on the back nine, however, with nine consecutive pars to shoot a 3-over 75 to finish at 6 under. The key hole was the par-4 12th, when he got up-and-down from 150 yards.
“That gave me the confidence going forward that hey, the game is where it needs to be,” Reed said. “You just need to right the ship. You got all the bad stuff out of the way, so now let’s go try to win this golf tournament.”
He finished at 6 under to match Casey (who rallied from the opening double to shoot 72), Oosthuizen (who birdied his last two holes to shoot 68), and Kozuma (who had four birdies in his final nine holes, recreating his magic at last season’s Dallas Team Championship at Maridoe).
The four-man playoff tied for the largest in LIV Golf history but only lasted one hole. Oosthuizen found the water off the tee, Casey found the greenside bunker with his approach shot, and Kozuma missed the green. Reed was the only one who had a birdie putt, thanks to a terrific approach shot out of the fairway rough.
“I looked down at my putter – it’s actually my daughter’s putter, and it says Windsor-Wells all over it,” Reed said. “I looked down and I said, ‘Come on honey, we’ve got to make one.’ For that putt to go in – it meant a lot.”
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The team victory certainly meant a lot to DeChambeau, while also sending a message to the rest of the league. They started the day four shots off the lead held by the 4Aces but quickly took control with fast starts by DeChambeau and Lahiri, who each had early streaks of three straight birdies.
The Crushers moved atop the team points standings on the strength of their depth, with all four players finishing inside the top 11 of the individual leaderboard. Their three consecutive wins matches the streak produced by Sergio Garcia’s Fireballs GC earlier this year.
“Losing in a playoff, I’m always a bit pissed off usually,” Casey said. “That’s understandable. But then you kind of see the joy on these guys’ faces … I’m sitting here smiling because I know what it means for Bryson, the effort that he’s put into the week. For us, this was like a little Crushers home game.”
