Sunday on the LIV Golf League generally provides drama and that would be no different on Valderrama with a double playoff required, a first for LIV Golf, to separate the team and individual leaders after regulation 54 holes, in a day of pure theatre at LIV Golf Andalucia.
On a potentially historic day for the host nation, Fireballs GC would prevail in the team honours, their first win, and after a second playoff hole on the 18th, their captain would clinch the individual victory after a late collapse by overnight leader Anirban Lahiri.
Starting the day in a marquee grouping with fellow Spaniard Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka, Garcia and his Fireballs GC team were bedecked in their team and national colours. The sight of Koepka arriving on to the first tee, in front of a partisan crowd, in an England football jersey to a chorus of good-natured boos was just the motivation the diminutive Spaniard needed as he went about his final day at Valderrama.
Sergio was straight out of the blocks with birdie on his opener, the par-5 fourth hole, and this was followed in by six more, including back-to-back from the par-5 11th. Just the one dropped shot would come on his final hole of the day, and that could have proved pivotal as he tidied up his day on the par-3 third hole.
Overnight leader by four, Lahiri was struggling with Valderrama on the final day but was still there or thereabouts all day as he went head-to-head with Garcia. The two were exchanging places all the way home but Lahiri’s form was a concern with three bogeys to his name as they came down the final stretch on the 15th. Another dropped shot would follow on the sixteenth only to be recovered on the next hole.
Lahiri held the lead by one as he teed off on the final hole of regulation play. On board the green in two and with two shots for the championship as his Crushers team captain watched on, Champagne at the ready, an inexplicable three-putt from the Indian stunned the gallery and we would enter the uncharted territory of a double playoff.
After the housework of organising the particulars of the playoff took place, Lahiri would have to reset and go again on the 18th, while Sergio had to nominate and organise two of his Fireballs teammates to take on Crushers captain Bryson and Paul Casey for the team playoff that would follow them down the 18th.
The team playoff was a straightforward affair. Garcia’s two generals, Ancer and Puig, would be safely on board in two strokes with Casey on the fringe and Crushers captain DeChambeau wayward off the tee and needing three to make the dancefloor. Bogey for Bryson left the door open for Abe Ancer who used his two strokes to secure a first victory for the ¾ Spanish Fireballs GC on home soil. Now it was up to their captain to make it a home-town clean sweep.
Crushers captain DeChambeau couldn’t disguise his disappointment after the dual playoff losses: “It sucks. Losing is never fun. That’s what makes winning so much better. I feel for Ban,” he said adding, “I was hitting it terrible all day. I thought I’d be okay hitting a 3-wood out there, and I just blocked it, and the wind didn’t take it back, and it was really weird, the wind just didn’t help us today. We got it to a couple ahead and we had it, and yeah, we just didn’t finish it like we normally do.”
Garcia would need two playoff holes to dispatch Lahiri and pile more misery on the Crushers team. Choosing three-wood off the tee both times meant Garcia was in prime position to attack the green whereas Lahiri drove the 18th on both occasions and twice leaked it right into the rough and the woods. His struggle to get to the fairway put himself under pressure and yet another three putt on the 18th hole meant Sergio was victorious. The Indian will have nightmares about the 18th green on Real Club Valderrama.
The victorious Garcia was asked if this ranked as a career highlight to win on home soil: “Without a doubt. Not only that, but also Carlos winning. Alcaraz won today. Hopefully Spain wins tonight. It would be an unbelievable weekend,” he said. “Actually, I was talking to my wife, my manager, and I was like, shooting 5-under and I’ll see what happens. But played well, played well in the playoff. It’s just a tough hole. But so happy.”
He paid tribute to the home crowd for cheering him home this week: “Oh, without a doubt. 15th, 16th and 17th. It was unbelievable the whole week. To have my kids here and my wife and my parents and everything, it’s a dream come true.”
Tyrrell Hatton would finish off the top-three on four-under with Patrick Reed and Louis Oosthuizen finishing one shot back. This was Garcia’s first victory since joining LIV and his first in four years. With Alcaraz in Wimbledon and Fireballs in Andalucia all eyes turn to Berlin and the search for a Spanish hat-trick.
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