Burmester outlasts Garcia in LIV Golf Miami playoff as Legion XIII take a second title

Dean Burmester may not be in the Masters field this week but the burly South African stamped his class on LIV Golf Miami and the 13 fellow-participants headed for Augusta National. With back-to-back wins including the South African Open coming into the season, he chased down overnight leader Sergio Garcia before sealing his first LIV individual title on the second playoff hole.

“Probably the best golf of my career,” said Burmester later. “If I look at it that way, the amount of wins, the amount of top 10s, tops 5s that I’m producing is some really special stuff. I feel like I’ve played some really great golf over the last five, six months. The two wins back home in South African before Christmas were special, two tournaments I’ve wanted to win for a long time.

“To win the South African Open, which is the second oldest tournament in the world, is a privilege. I thought I held myself really well there, and to come here on a golf course like this that’s major worthy and to beat major champions, I’m happy to have done that.”

In the team event, defending Masters champion Jon Rahm and Legion XIII teammate Tyrrell Hatton celebrated their second victory of the season, surviving a topsy-turvy final round on Doral’s Blue Monster course to win by one shot over the RangeGoats. Rahm and Hatton have by now relocated to Augusta, Georgia. “It was a great week,” said Rahm, who was tied for fourth in the individual event along with Hatton and Mark Leishman of the Rippers behind Burmester, Garcia and Matthew Wolff. “Hopefully I can keep doing all the good things I’ve done this week next week and avoid a couple of silly mistakes and hopefully go back-to-back (at Augusta National Golf Club).” Fireballs captain Garcia started on Sunday with a two-shot lead but was eventually caught by several players including Burmester, Stinger captain Louis Oosthuizen, Garcia, Hatton, and Wolff. Burmester then grabbed the lead with a birdie on hole 16 but bogeyed the difficult par-4 18th when his drive strayed.

Garcia took back the lead with a 40-footer birdie putt at 17, but three-putted 18 to fall back into a tie and force the playoff. After both he and Burmester parred the first knockout hole, Garcia found water with his approach shot while Burmester landed on the green for a two-putt par to win. “This is a monster of a place and it’s hosted so many great championships over the years,” Burmester said. “Now it’s hosting us, and I feel privileged to have won here.”

Garcia has now lost thrice in LIV Golf playoffs. He went four holes against Joaquin Niemann in near darkness at Mayakoba and also lost last year in Singapore to Talor Gooch. “Obviously when you’re that close, you want to win it,” he said. “Unfortunately, that only happens to one guy, and it wasn’t meant to be me.”

He then added, “It’s not the playoffs. I’m doing it myself. Obviously, a couple of shots here and there. But it’s what it is. You’ve got to keep giving yourself chances and wait for it to happen.”

The Legionnaires were led by Rahm’s 3-under 69, with Caleb Surratt contributing a 70, Hatton 71 and Kieran Vincent 77 to finish on 22 under par for the week. They were in command for much of the day but hit a rough patch before easing through to the top spot on the podium.

“I knew we would find our stride at some point,” Rahm said. “It was definitely a surprise to end up winning the first week, and I would say it was no surprise that we ended up winning this week.”

Meanwhile, with Burmester’s title, the Stingers become the first team to celebrate wins by three different individuals after Charl Schwartzel in London and Branden Grace at Portland in LIV Golf’s inaugural 2022 season.

Final scores

1. Legion XIII -22 (Rahm 69, Surratt 70, Hatton 71, Vincent) 2. RangeGoats GC -21 (Wolff 69, Pieters 69, Uihlein 73, Watson 74) 3. Stinger GC -15 (Burmester 68, Oosthuizen 71, Grace 72, Schwartzel 75) T4. Torque GC -13 (Muñoz 68, Ortiz 68, Niemann 70, Pereira 78) T4. Fireballs GC -13 (Ancer 68, Garcia 70, Puig 71, Chacarra 76) 6. Crushers GC -11 (DeChambeau 68, Casey 69, Howell III 70, Lahiri 77) 7. Smash GC -7 (Kokrak 68, McDowell 70, Gooch 73, Koepka 77) 8. 4Aces GC -5 (Varner III 70, Reed 72, Johnson 74, Perez 76) 9. Cleeks GC E (Bland 73, Meronk 74, Kaymer 76, Samooja 77) 10. Ripper GC +4 (Jones 69, Leishman 69, Campbell 73, Herbert 81) 11. IronHeads GC +5 (Vincent 72, Lee 72, Na 73, Kozuma 76) T12. Majesticks GC +6 (Poulter 71, Stenson 73, Westwood 73, Horsfield 73) T12. HyFlyers GC +6 (Tringale 71, Steele 72, Ogletree 75, Mickelson 76)