Charles Howell III (US, Crushers GC) shot a final round eight under par 63 for a 54 hole score of 16 under par to win the Individual Event in the $25 million LIV Golf League Mayakoba in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
Howell and his Crushers team mates of Captain Bryson DeChambeau (US), Paul Casey (Eng) and Dubai based Anirban Lahiri (Ind) won the Team Event and a share of the $5 million purse at 26 under par for a nine shot victory from last year’s Team champions 4Aces GC in this best three scores from the four players in each round.
Third-place finish
Last season during the beta-test LIV Golf Invitational Series, the Crushers finished second twice and also had a third-place finish in the five regular season events.
Howell’s round was the lowest of the week and his fourth worldwide victory of his career, and his first at El Camaleon, a course he first competed on in 2007 and was playing for the 14th time this week.
Starting out from the first tee in this shotgun start format he birdied six of his first eight holes. He played a solid back nine with further birdies on holes 10 and 17 and no bogeys to take the first prize of $4 million.
He finished four strokes ahead of third round co-leader Peter Uihlein (Smash GC), who shot a final round 68. Stinger GC’s Branden Grace was third at 10 under after shooting 67.
On completing his round 43 year-old Howell said, “Obviously, I don’t think you ever see a win coming, I’ve played in a lot of golf tournaments in my life, and I haven’t won a lot of them, and you have the doubts and the feelings, will you ever win again? To do it against this competition with these guys standing up here is more than I could ever dream of. I’m extremely thankful.”
Final green
In the end, Howell’s 16 under score was almost enough to beat the 4Aces by himself. Casey, who didn’t look at a leaderboard until he reached the final green, was shocked to see the wide margin in which his team was leading. He then asked his caddie about Howell. The response, “He’s crushing it.”
Lahiri added, “There will be days like this where you kind of ride the hot round, and Charles pulled it through for us.”
This is the first of 14 events in seven countries on the 2023 LIV Golf League. 48 players compete in Teams of four players with $20 million allocated to the Individual Event and $5 million to the Team Event.
The next LIV Golf League event is LIV Golf Tucson at The Gallery Golf Club on March 17th – 19th.
Final Results (Par 71, 7,003 Yards).
Individual
C. Howell (US) 68. 66. 63. 197.
P. Uihlein (US) 67. 66. 68. 201.
B. Grace (RSA) 68. 68. 67. 203.
P. Casey (Eng) 65. 71. 70. 206.
Team (Best 3 from 4 Players each day)
Crushers GC (B. DeChambeau, Capt, C. Howell III, P. Casey and A. Lahiri) -26.
4Aces GC (D. Johnson, Capt, P. Uihlein, P. Perez and P. Reed) -17.
Torque GC (J. Niemann, Capt, S. Munoz, M. Pereira and D. Puig) -13.
Stinger GC -12.
Ripper GC -12.
Fireballs GC -11.
