Fireballs GC captain Sergio Garcia got out in front early on Championship Sunday at LIV Golf Hong Kong and he never looked back, winning the individual title by three strokes while also leading his team to a one-stroke victory.
Garcia, who started the day tied at the top of the leaderboard with Peter Uihlein and Paul Casey, carded a flawless 7-under 63 to take home his second individual LIV Golf title, having also won last year’s LIV Golf Andalucía. The former Masters champ finished at 18 under, three ahead of Stinger GC’s Dean Burmester and four ahead of HyFlyers GC captain Phil Mickelson.
Garcia’s Fireballs are now back-to-back Team champions, having also won the last event, LIV Golf Adelaide.
Garcia got his round jumpstarted with an early eagle on the par-5 third hole, then poured in four straight birdies on holes 8 through 11, and then added a fifth birdie coming home on the 16th hole to put the exclamation point on a thrilling final round.
The captain was helped on the team side by last year’s Hong Kong individual winner, Abraham Ancer (65), David Puig (67) and Luis Masaveu (70) as they finished 15 under in the final round to beat Stinger GC by a single stroke.
“Super proud of the team … I really love this format and the team aspect of it and put my arm around them and give them advice if they need it or want it.”
Meanwhile, Tom McKibbin continued his fine start to life on LIV Golf with a final round of four-under to claim a share of sixth place on eleven-under-par.
Starting from the third hole, the Holywood man opened with a birdie and broke a run of seven straight pars with a welcome birdie on the eleventh.
His hopes of a maiden LIV Golf victory were kept alive with back to back birdies on 16 and 17 but they were extinguished just as quickly with a costly double bogey on the 18th.
To his credit, the Legion XIII newbie finished with back to back birdies to cap off another strong week as he finished alongside team captain Jon Rahm.
Smash GC golfer Graeme McDowell fell to 12th place despite finishing with a two-under round.
McDowell also double bogeyed the 18th with another bogey coming on the eleventh. But there was more good golf from the 2010 US Open winner who rolled in five birdies to finish his week on nine-under.
Legion XIII finished the week in fifth place on -33, one shot outside of a podium position and four shots behind Fireballs GC while Smash GC were twelfth of the thirteen teams on seventeen-under.
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