The LIV Golf Miami title goes to Dean Burmester (68 69 68), who clinched victory in Florida over Sergio Garcia (67 68 70) in a playoff, securing the fourth event of the 2024 Arab Super League. The South African capitalized on a bogey by the Spaniard, who, for the third time since joining LIV Golf, lost a tournament in a playoff.
EDITOR’S PICKS
Both players in Miami finished the regulation 54 holes with a score of 205 (-11), but a mistake by the 2017 Masters Champion allowed the 34-year-old Zimbabwe-born Burmester to celebrate his first title on the circuit, his third in the last six months after winning the Joburg Open and South African Championship on the DP World Tour in November and December 2023.
Miami, results
Spanish golfer Jon Rahm, a standout in the Super League, finished 4th with 208 (-8) alongside Englishman Tyrrell Hatton, with whom he led the “Legio XII” team to victory in the team competition (-22). “It’s a special victory and one of the most beautiful moments of my life,” expressed Burmester’s satisfaction.
His achievement earned him $4,000,000, with an additional $150,000 for third place (-15) in the team event where the “Stinger GC” were also surpassed by Bubba Watson’s “RangeGoats GC,” who finished 2nd with a score of “-21”.
Sergio Garcia began playing golf at the age of 3 at the “Club de Campo del Mediterráneo,” where his father Victor was a golf instructor. By the age of 12, he was already a champion at his club, and four years later, he became the youngest player to make the cut at a European Tour event, at the Turespaña Open Mediterranea in 1995.
This record was later surpassed by amateur Jason Hark at the UBS Hong Kong Open. In the same year, Garcia became the youngest player to win the European Amateur Championship. Throughout his amateur career, he achieved numerous victories, from the Topolino World Junior Championship in 1994 to the European Championship in 1995, and the British Amateur in 1998.
He turned professional in 1999 after winning the title of leading amateur at the Augusta Masters, achieving a handicap of +5.4, and maintaining an official match-play record of 32 victories and only one defeat. In his first year as a pro, he caught attention with a spectacular duel against Tiger Woods at the 1999 PGA Championship, where he executed his famous shot: an intentional slice from behind a tree that landed on the green, followed by Garcia running and jumping to see its landing.
Garcia has always been one of the strongest players from tee to green, with a distinctive swing. He has been a key member of the European Ryder Cup team, boasting 6 victories (2002, 2004, 2006, 2012, 2014, 2018) in 9 appearances and setting the record for the youngest participant in the tournament (in the 1999 edition).