Sergio gets wet, Burmester gets the title at LIV Golf Miami on Doral’s Blue Monster

Sunday at Trump National Doral began with Sergio Garcia leading the individual portion of LIV Golf Miami by two shots, eventually involved five players jumping in and out of the lead over the event’s last 10 regulation holes and ended with two sudden death playoff holes between Garcia and Dean Burmester.

The final, winning shot was Burmester’s par putt on an 18th hole that had already wounded both men in regulation. The deciding shot, however, was from Garcia, an approach that found the water to the left of the 18th green. Though Garcia pulled a bogey out with a wonderful backspin-heavy approach and solid putt, the wet approach allowed Burmester to play it safe and two-putt for a victorious par.

“I’m at a loss for words, to be honest,” Burmester said to the LIV Golf interviewer. “I’ve been at the receiving end of this a few times, where I feel like I’ve played great and I haven’t got it done. Then, he obviously gave me a lifeline,, I got in a playoff and anything can happen in a playoff.

“Today was my day. I was super calm throughout the whole day. And, I had an amazing crowd — some guys I get some tickets for they were just shouting at me all day. They carried me.”

Burmester said they were South Africans who work on yachts and were here for a conference. He met them on Saturday after they “screamed for me pretty much the whole day” and his Stinger teammates, South Africans Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel and Branden Grace.

Matthew Wolff finished regulation with a 10-under 206 to finish third.

“I played really well all week, really solid,” Wolff said. “My ball-striking was great. Probably could have made a few more putts and especially today. It seemed like there was a few key ones that just kind of hung on the edge or didn’t want to go in.”

As far as the team competition, the winner was Legion XIII (Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Caleb Surratt, Kieran Vincent) at 22-under, one shot ahead of RangeCoats GC. Legion opened the day three shots up on Rangecoats, built it to five, then needed Rahm to sink a long birdie putt on the par-4 No. 2 to avoid the first LIV Golf team playoff.

Rahm sank his putt as Vincent was dealing with a disaster on the par-5, 578-yard No. 1. Rahm said to the LIV Golf interviewer he thought the putt might be important, but didn’t expect Vincent to run into as much trouble as he did. After his putt went down, Rahm realized what was happening to Vincent, who did well to escape No. 1 with a bogey.

Garcia began the day at 9-under with a two-shot lead on the other two in his threesome, Wolff and Talor Gooch, as well as Hatton and Burmester, a Zimbabwe-born man who golfs under South Africa’s flag. The latter two were playing with Louis Oosthuizen in the group ahead of Garcia.

Garcia quickly got to 10-under but so did Burmester as Hatton got hot. A Garcia birdie gave him back the lead at 11-under but Hatton kept a run of birdies going on the par-3 No. 9 to tie at 11-under. Meanwhile, Wolff eagled the par-5 No. 8 to jump in the middle of the leaderboard mix at 11-under.

As the music from the nearby social area thumped — one of LIV Golf’s slogans is “Golf, But Louder” — Garcia, Wolff and Gooch followed tee shots on No. 9 well short (Garcia) or left (Wolff, Gooch) of the green with chips that ran them into long par putts and the bogey zone. None escaped and Hatton briefly had the lead to himself before his bogey.

Garcia, Burmester, Gooch, Hatton and Wolff all sat at 10-under until Gooch’s attempt at a par save on the 428-yard par-4 11th failed. Burmester stepped up with a birdie at 13. Louis Oosthuizen threw down a couple of birdies to briefly tie Burmester for the lead before bogeying the 183-yard, par-3 15th hole.

Oosthuizen rebounded with a birdie on the 16th as Garcia birdied the 15th, each lifting himself into a tie for the lead Burmester at 11-under. Burmester dropped a birdie putt to take back the lead with two holes to go. Oosthuizen’s disastrous 17th dropped him three shots back and left matters to Burmester and Garcia.

Garcia, 44, tied Burmester at 12-under with a 40-food, slithering downhill putt on the par-4 17th hole that brought a roar from the gallery. Up at the par-4, 468-yard 18th hole, Burmester heard the roar just after his tee shot put him in trouble and he eventually left his par putt well short.

“I didn’t make a bogey until that hole and hung up,” Burmester said. “I heard Sergio made a long putt. I heard a cameraman say, Do you want to know what Sergio did. I said, I don’t want to know what he did.”

Burmester’s bogey pushed Garcia back in front by one shot headed for the par-4, 468-yard 18th hole. Burmester headed for the practice putting green where his Stinger teammates kept telling Burmester nothing had been decided. Garcia still had to make par on the notoriously tough hole.

Garcia had a 7-foot par putt to win. The putt hadn’t even begun to slide right of the hole when Garcia began showing his displeasure at how he’d pushed it.

“Unfortunately I just didn’t trust my putt and didn’t hit a good second putt,” Garcia said. “That’s the way it is sometimes.”