Dustin Johnson repeats Boston feat of a year ago at LIV Golf Tulsa

Dustin Johnson left it till the very last to win his second LIV Golf individual title, beating Open champion Cameron Smith and early leader Branden Grace in the first playoff hole at Broken Arrow for his second title to pull off a repeat of his Boston victory last year.

After the top three had all finished on 17-under par totals, the 4Aces captain and two-time major winner birdied the first playoff hole at the Cedar Ridge Country Club in front of a packed house to pick up his second $4 million cheque, this time at LIV Golf Tulsa.

India star Anirban Lahiri drove his team, the Crushers all the way but fell one stroke short of a second successive podium, taking fourth place in the team competition and a share of tenth place in the individual competition on 10-under 200 alongside four others.

Lahiri (65), Mayakoba winner Charles Howell III (66) and team captain Bryson DeChambeau (67) combined for a 12-under total on the day and 34-under overall behind the third-placed RangeGoats GC.

In the season-long standings with only the top 24 guaranteed of a place in the 2024 season, Lahiri is 17th from five starts that includes a shared second place at LIV Golf Adelaide. On the team table, the Crushers are fourth on 68 points behind runaway leaders 4Aces (120 points), the Stingers (84) who topped the LIV Golf Tulsa race, and the RangeGoats (75).

At the top, Johnson needed to overcome a triple bogey and the three-way playoff in front of massive for his title while second placed Grace and his team, the Stingers topped the team competition. It was a second win for the all-South African Stingers led by Louis Oosthuizen and came with Grace’s par putt on the 54th and final hole in regulation on Sunday.

Johnson thus joined Brooks Koepka and Talor Gooch as the third two-time winner in LIV Golf, and moved to sixth in the points standings after a slow start to the season. “Next time I’d like to win without going into a playoff,” Johnson said later. “Would be a lot less stressful.”

Sunday was also a day of low scores, with Smith and RangeGoats GC’s Harold Varner III tying the LIV record-low score of 61 (nine under par) set by Grace in Friday’s first round.

“I actually hit a great first putt that was straight on line,” said Grace. “Just nice finishing it out and then knowing that the team was successful. At the end, it was not bittersweet, but I know I put in a lot of hard work and it’s paid off, and the team really wanted this one.”

For Johnson, the result came at exactly the right time, going into next week’s PGA Championship, the second major of the season. “Feel like I’m doing everything really well right now,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to next week.”

Final team scores

1. Stinger GC (-40): Dean Burmester 64, Branden Grace 65, Charl Schwartzel 66

2. 4Aces GC (-39): Patrick Reed 64, Pat Perez 66, Peter Uihlein 67

3. RangeGoats GC (-35): Harold Varner III 61, Talor Gooch 67, Thomas Pieters 67

4. Crushers GC (-34): Anirban Lahiri 65, Charles Howell III 66, Bryson DeChambeau 67

5. Smash GC (-34): Jason Kokrak 63, Brooks Koepka 65, Chase Koepka 67

6. Fireballs GC (-33): Carlos Ortiz 63, Eugenio Chacarra 64, Sergio Garcia 65

7. Ripper GC (-32): Cameron Smith 61, Matt Jones 66, Marc Leishman 69

8. Torque GC (-31): Sebastián Muñoz 62, Joaquin Niemann 65, Mito Pereira 68

9, Majesticks GC (-30): Andy Ogletree 62, Laurie Canter 65, Henrik Stenson 65

10. HyFLyers GC (-21): Cameron Tringale 65, James Piot 67, Brendan Steele 68

11. Iron Heads GC (-21): Scott Vincent 64, Kevin Na 68, Sihwan Kim 68

12. Cleeks GC (-19): Bernd Wiesberger 66, Martin Kaymer 68, Richard Bland 70