NORTH PLAINS, Ore. — Branden Grace won LIV Golf’s first stop on American soil. Grace closed with a 7-under 65 on Saturday to finish at 13 under in the 54-hole tournament at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club. The 34-year-old South African won $4 million.
The fledgling LIV series has lured some top professional players, including Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson, with the promise of big signing bonuses, hefty prize purses and fewer events.
Grace beat Mexico’s Carlos Ortiz by two strokes.
“Played flawless golf, played really, really well when I needed to do something special and came up and managed to pull it out,” Grace said. “But just what a great day, it was amazing to come here, this new format, this new everything is amazing and everybody here is having a blast.”
Ortiz, ranked No. 119 in the world, shot a 69. Johnson (71) finished four back with Patrick Reed (67).
The 48-man field in Oregon competed for a $20 million purse, with an additional $5 million prize fund for a team competition. There was no cut and even the last-place finisher earned a payday of $120,000. Charl Schwartzel won the tour’s inaugural event outside of London (and the team portion) and pocketed $4.75 million.
The Four Aces team, led by Johnson, won the team competition at Pumpkin Ridge.
LIV Golf also announced Saturday that English player Pat Casey has joined the series. Casey, 44, has won three times on the PGA Tour and 15 times on the European Tour, and is ranked No. 26 in the world. He has not played a tournament round since March because of injuries.
The PGA Tour has responded to the upstart tour by suspending every active member who competed in the first LIV event. Those who played in Oregon were also suspended unless they resign their tour memberships.
LIV Golf touts that it’s “golf, but louder.” In addition to the simultaneous team competition, the tournaments feature shotgun starts, interactive fan activities and hip-hop blaring on the driving range.
Crowds on Saturday were better than Thursday and Friday. LIV Golf said it was a sellout, but would not reveal the number of tickets sold.
The tour’s next event is set for July 29-31 at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster. Casey is expected to join at that time.
