Dustin Johnson watched the ultimate putt of his season roll in, pumped his proper fist and waited for the social gathering to start.
Another massive celebration. Another massive test, too.
The victory capped a monster earnings year for Johnson, by far the largest money winner in the primary year of the Saudi-backed LIV tour. Including his $18 million US for profitable the season-long particular person title, Johnson completed with $35,637,767 in earnings.
“It’s been superb,” Johnson mentioned. “Obviously, the followers [are] what makes it. This week’s been unimaginable. This entire season has gotten higher and higher and clearly this finale has been unbelievable.”
Johnson (70), Reed (70), Talor Gooch (71) and Pat Perez (70) shot a mixed 7 underneath 281 on the par-72 Sunday — and cut up $16 million.
“I really feel unbelievable,” Perez mentioned.
Reed felt even higher, making birdie on his last gap to give Johnson a one-shot lead to work with. Johnson was on the par-4 18th inexperienced in two when Reed completed, whereas Smith — the opposite participant in Johnson’s twosome — was needing a miracle that did not arrive. Reed’s birdie gave his team the lead, and two putts from Johnson later, it was over.
“Makes me really feel nice,” Reed mentioned.
<a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/4ACES?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#4ACES</a> are our 2022 Team Champions 🏆<a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/LIVGolf?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#LIVGolf</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/LIVGolfMiami?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#LIVGolfMiami</a> <a href=”https://t.co/QSwg78R9ej”>pic.twitter.com/QSwg78R9ej</a>
—@LIVGolfInv
Johnson wound up claiming 14% of the $255 million in purses and bonuses received by all gamers in LIV’s inaugural year, not together with signing bonuses, which have been huge and reported to be round $200 million for Phil Mickelson, and at the least $100 million apiece for gamers like Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau.
Smith (65), Matt Jones (70), Wade Ormsby (73) and Marc Leishman (74) completed at 6 underneath, splitting $8 million.
“I feel LIV Golf goes to be larger and higher due to this occasion,” Smith mentioned.
Smash GC — Koepka (74), Peter Uihlein (75), Jason Kokrak (68) and Chase Koepka (75) — ended 4 over and cut up $6 million.
Stinger GC, the team of Louis Oosthuizen (71), Charl Schwartzel (71), Hennie du Plessis (76) and Branden Grace (80), completed at 10 over and cut up $4 million.
The payouts subsequent year, when LIV grows from eight to 14 occasions, will attain $405 million — supplied by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. And if extra gamers be part of LIV in the approaching months, there can be extra signing bonuses, too.
“Next year we’re going to play 14 occasions, plus … the majors,” Mickelson mentioned throughout the LIV Golf broadcast on YouTube, doing the knock-on-wood-for-luck transfer earlier than saying “the majors.” “And that is numerous golf. I’ve bought numerous golf developing subsequent year and I actually need to get again to the extent that I do know I can play.”
The majors stay in some query since a lot of the qualifying course of for them revolves round world rankings. For now, LIV gamers do not get factors towards their Official World Golf Ranking. They’ve been attempting to change that.
Perez made simply over $8 million in seven LIV occasions, which is greater than he had in his final 5 years on the PGA Tour mixed.
Uihlein, who by no means received on the PGA Tour, completed his LIV season with simply over $12.5 million in seven occasions. That greater than doubled his profession earnings in 10 years as a professional.
“We’ve had numerous headwinds,” LIV CEO and commissioner Greg Norman mentioned on the streamed broadcast prior to the beginning of the ultimate spherical. “We’ve weathered all of the storms, and we’re right here. We’ve bought an ideal crew of individuals and we have got an ideal product and we’re off and operating.”