KING ABDULLAH ECONOMIC CITY, Saudi Arabia: Joaquin Niemann captured his second LIV Golf title in three outings on yesterday after cruising to a four-stroke victory at LIV Golf Jeddah Invitational in King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia.
Niemann carded a 4-under-par 66 and finished at 17-under 193 at the Royal Greens Golf and Country Club. For his efforts, the 25-year-old Chilean earned $4 million, boosting his season total after three events to US$8,162,000.
"I'm more than happy about the way I'm playing," Niemann said. "I just want to keep on the same path. I'm pretty proud of the way I played all week."
Niemann has posted three wins in his last three months. He emerged victorious at the Australian Open in December as well the LIV season opener at Mayakoba in February. He also notched a third-place finish in the Asian Tour event last week.
"We've got another week to come," Niemann said. "I told myself I can win these three weeks I'm playing. So next week and see what happens."
South Africans Louis Oosthuizen (67 on Sunday) and Charl Schwartzel (68) finished in a tie for second place at 13-under.
"Yeah. It was nice to play well. I was very happy that I drove it better," Schwartzel said. "Joaco played really good today, and I didn't have enough good chances, but I was very happy the way I drove it. That's a big improvement."
Bryson DeChambeau rode a blistering 62 on Sunday into a fourth-place finish at 12-under, followed by first-round co-leader Jon Rahm (68) of Spain at 11-under.
Well down the leaderboard was Anthony Kim, who returned from a near-12-year absence from competitive golf to sign a deal with LIV Golf. He followed up consecutive 76s with a 74 on Sunday to card a 16-over 226, which was 33 shots in back of Niemann.
Crushers, comprised of DeChambeau, Anirban Lahiri, Paul Casey and Charles Howell II, won the team competition on Sunday at 38-under. Stinger was second at 34-under and Smash third at 33-under.
DeChambeau admitted his team didn't come into Sunday thinking it would win the tournament.
"No, but I knew that our team is good enough to do it any day, especially four scores counting. I can count on these guys to play really well," DeChambeau said. "It was just a top priority for us to play our best, and this obviously showed today. Especially in these types of conditions, when it's really windy, we do pretty well. We just hold our head high. I don't know what else to say." -REUTERS
