LIV Golf Valderrama will also be a warmup for next week’s Open Championship

Ahead of next week’s The Open where 19 LIV Golf members will be seen in action, the league returns to Valderrama for a third straight year for LIV Golf Andalucia, scene of last year’s triumph for Sergio Garcia, and heartbreak for Anirban Lahiri.

The two — winless in LIV Golf till that point — were separated at the end by the sudden death eliminator that the Spaniard won on the second playoff hole after rallying from a seven-shot overnight deficit to the Indian star. Lahiri too has been at the losing end in more than one LIV Golf playoff starting with his very first appearance win Boston three years ago. 

The team event went to a playoff as well where Garcia’s Fireballs teammates Abraham Ancer and David Puig beat the Crushers duo of captain Bryson DeChambeau and Paul Casey handing both trophies to the mostly-Spanish team at Real Club Valderrama. 

It was the first double playoff in LIV Golf’s short history and made special for Garcia after three previous playoff defeats, giving him four professional wins in all at the venue. “To be totally honest, there’s a connection between Valderrama and myself that I can’t even explain it,” the 45-year-old said that day.

Added Garcia ahead of the 2025 event about the venue, “It’s super special. Not only for me but for all of us because of how much Valderrama means to all of us, to Europe, all the amazing things that have happened here on this golf course.”

Headed into Friday, DeChambeau, Lahiri and the rest of the Crushers lineup of Paul Casey and Charles Howell III, are in line to match the LIV Golf record of four consecutive team wins set by Dustin Johnson’s 4Aces GC in the inaugural 2022 season.

The Crushers lead the team standings after their dominant third win in a row, am 11-stroke margin at LIV Golf Dallas after topping the podium earlier in Korea and Virginia. They are already the most successful franchise with eight titles in all and the 2023 season-ending championship in the bag.

Patrick Reed of the 4Aces, another first-time LIV Golf winner at Dallas and part of the 156-strong Open Championship field, will want to focus his preparations for Royal Portrush, as will the 18 others who also will be playing at the year’s final major.

At Valderrama, Garcia will not be the only Spanish team captain and will have Legion XIII’s Jon Rahm for company, who too is a great fan of the course, and noted ahead of the tournament, “It’s all subjective, but it’s probably the best golf course we have in Spain. It’s something that we all grew up wanting to play.”