When Bryson DeChambeau’s tee shot hooked left and found the water on the first playoff hole at Aramco LIV Golf Singapore, he handed wildcard Richard T. Lee a strong advantage but the Canadian failed to make the most of it, over-correcting and pushing his own right and into the fairway bunker.
Still, as heavy rain poured down at Sentosa Golf Club, it was very much advantage Lee, and having laid up, gave himself a 12-footer for birdie and victory. DeChambeau hadn’t made it easy, however, as after taking his penalty drop, he crushed a fairway wood 280 yards to greenside and then chipped close to all but secure par.
Leaving the birdie putt short would’ve been a criminal act for Lee, but he gave it a little too much juice and ran just over two feet past. On a similar line, DeChambeau stepped up first and made no mistake, but just when it looked a certainty that they’d be returning to the tee for a second time, Lee’s stroke got twitchy, and the putt lipped out.
“Yeah, you never want to win that way. I’ll be the first to admit that,” DeChambeau said in his post-tournament press conference.
“Absolutely hated it for Richard. He’s been playing some unbelievable golf. He’s beat me in a few of the rounds I’ve played with him, and he’s a stellar player. I wanted to go another hole with him. As much as winning is great, I have a lot of respect for Richard and the way he golfs his ball out there.
“It was quite impressive; I was coming down the last three holes, like all right, I think I’m one ahead of everybody, and seeing Richard go and play the way he did finishing out, he’s a real superstar, and the league should be really proud to have him on as a wild card.”
It’s the Crushers GC captain’s first victory since the U.S. Open in 2024 – and his first LIV win since 2023 – and he admitted that relief was the overriding emotion.
“Oh, incredible relief,” he said. “I haven’t won in four rounds since the U.S. Open 2024. Being able to come through on a golf course like this that’s super brutal and demands precision on every single shot, especially with the conditions changing, I couldn’t be more happy for my team.”
For Lee, who earned his place on LIV by winning the Promotions Event earlier this year, the loss will be hard to take.
“There’s some slick putts out there,” he said. “There’s some little lies out there. It was a short putt and I wanted to just hit it hard, and I hit it a little too hard. I think the adrenaline was pumping a little bit. Then again, I felt like I had it this week. I played really well. Hopefully next week I can try again.”
For most of the day, Joaquin Niemann looked set to produce a successful defence of the title he won last year but some suspect putting down the stretch, prior to pulling his tee shot into the same hazard DeChambeau would later find cost him his chances and he was pipped by Lee Westwood into solo third place at -12, two behind the leading duo.
Jon Rahm kept his run of season top-five finishes going, but the Spaniard will have his own laments after missing several very makeable birdie putts and then carving a tee shot out of bounds on the 15th.
Tom McKibbin closed out with a two-under 69 to finish tied for 21st at -4, while Graeme McDowell shot a level-par 71 to finish one shot further back and share 28th.
For the second week running, Dustin Johnson’s 4Aces GC took team honours. Thomas Pieters’ 65 was the low round of the day for the Aces, who ran out five-stroke winners over Ripper GC with McKibbin’s Legion XIII finishing third, one shot further adrift.
“It feels good, especially since obviously all four of us are playing nicely,” Johnson said afterwards. “We knew coming into it, if we all four play well, we’re going to be a very tough team to beat. We all four played pretty solid, especially TP today, he played really well. Had a nice finish. Detry played pretty solid. I’m not sure what AK shot but I think he played pretty well.
“Obviously this is a tough golf course, tough conditions, kind of starting and stopping. The guys held in there pretty nicely, and yeah, got another win.”
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