Four-time major-winner Brooks Koepka secured the most important payday of his profession with a $4 million playoff win over shut buddy Peter Uihlein on the Saudi-funded LIV Golf Invitational Series tour on Sunday.
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Koepka’s birdie on the Jeddah Invitational’s third playoff gap price Uihlein an eye-watering $5.875 million because it denied him the winner’s prize plus $8 million for second place within the season standings.
Uihlein can console himself with $4 million for third place this season, plus $2.125 million for second place on Sunday and $750 000 for successful the group occasion alongside Koepka.
Brooks Koepka also can add $750 000 to his winnings for the group victory.
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The 2017-2018 US Open and 2018-2019 PGA Championship winner was emotional afterwards, revealing he had feared for his profession whereas battling damage.
“The last two years haven’t been fun – it’s been a long road,” stated Koepka, 32.
“I didn’t know if my career was over for half-a-second. I wasn’t sure if I was going to play so it’s nice to be able to come back and be able to win.”
The $25 million event in King Abdullah Economic City, north of Jeddah, was the primary LIV cease in Saudi Arabia and the final particular person occasion of a debut season that has cut up the golf world.
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Koepka, who wrecked his knee in 2021 and has additionally had hip issues, stated he would honour his pledge to purchase his brother and team-mate, Chase, a lime-green sports activities automotive for successful the group title.
“I told my brother I’d buy him a Lambo (Lamborghini) if we won the team thing, so now, I’ve got to go buy one,” he stated.
Brooks Koepka’s winnings far outstrip his prizes for any of his main titles. He took house $2.16 million from the US Open in 2017 and 2018, and $1.98 million from every of his PGA Championship victories.
Uihlein started the day one shot forward of Koepka and from the shotgun begin, the previous Challenge Tour room-mates duelled their manner across the course on a scorching day of stiff breezes and scant birdies.
Brooks Koepka had 2 putts for the win
Arriving on the 18th, their closing gap, they have been in a four-way tie for the lead however they each birdied to move into the playoff and go away Sergio Garcia and Joaquin Niemann behind.
Uihlein escaped from a greenside bunker twice to take it to a 3rd gap however then, from a clumsy lie within the sand, he wedged over the inexperienced and into the water to go away Koepka with two putts for the win.
Uihlein, 33, stood to win $12.75 million, almost tripling his PGA Tour profession earnings, if he had seen out the victory.
LIV’s arrival as a deep-pocketed rival to the PGA Tour and Europe’s DP World Tour has divided golf, its gamers and its followers, with critics calling it a “sportswash” of Saudi’s human rights document.
This week’s event, the primary on Saudi soil, has additionally coincided with a political row between Washington and Riyadh over cuts in oil manufacturing by the Saudi-led OPEC+ grouping.
Tiny crowds on the Royal Greens course in King Abdullah Economic City, a distant improvement north of Jeddah, haven’t helped LIV dwell as much as its “golf, but louder” slogan this week.
LIV tournaments, which provide profitable prizes however no world rankings factors, are performed over 54 holes with no reduce and a restricted, 48-man discipline.
LIV, backed by Saudi Arabia’s PIF sovereign wealth fund, concludes its debut season with a group occasion later this month at Trump National in Miami, with an expanded 14-stop circuit deliberate for subsequent 12 months.
By Garrin Lambley © Agence France-Presse
