New Zealand’s Danny Lee fired a 2-under 69 in the third round before prevailing in a four-man playoff on Sunday to win LIV Golf Tucson in Marana, Ariz.
Lee closed his round with back-to-back birdies to finish with six against four bogeys on Sunday, leaving him tied with Mexico’s Carlos Ortiz, Brendan Steele and Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa at 9-under 204 after 54 holes.
A 25-foot birdie put on the second playoff hole then sealed the victory for Lee, who hadn’t won on a tour in eight years.
“Last win I had was 2015 at Greenbrier. That was also a four-man playoff,” Lee said. “Maybe it was a coincidence, I don’t know. But it feels pretty amazing right now.”
Despite coming up just short as an individual, Ortiz was able to celebrate as a member of Fireballs GC, which finished at 25 under to finish atop the leaderboard in team action. Sergio Garcia, Abraham Ancer and Eugenio Chacarra joined Ortiz in relishing the victory.
4Aces GC (21 under) and Lee’s squad, Iron Heads GC (19 under), finished in second and third, respectively.
“It’s great,” Ortiz said of having his team pull out a win. “I think we’ve been pretty solid. We did well in Mayakoba, we finished terrible and we ended falling from the podium to sixth place, so it was nice revenge here.”
Ortiz also shot the low round on Sunday, notching a 6-under 65.
Outside of the three-way tie for second place in individual play, Charles Howell III recorded an even-par 71 in the third round to finish fifth at 8-under 205. Spain’s Garcia (73 on Sunday), Kevin Na (71), Australian Matt Jones (69) and Mito Pereira of Chile (67) all tied for sixth at 7 under, two strokes off the lead.
Peter Uihlein, Matthew Wolff and South African Branden Grace finished T10.
Second-round leader Marc Leishman of Australia shot a 6-over-par 77 on Sunday, causing him to slide down the leaderboard and finish in a five-way tie for 13th.
–Field Level Media
