Dean Burmester Defeats Sergio Garcia In Playoff To Pick Up LIV Golf Miami Title

Welcome

Welcome to our coverage of the final day's play of LIV Golf Miami. This is the fifth event of the LIV Golf season, and comes a month after the fourth, which was LIV Hong Kong. After this, the next LIV Golf events are in Adelaide and Singapore, in back-to-back weeks (April 26-28 and May 3-5), and then there is another month gap until LIV Golf Houston.

Crushers being squeezed out?

Legion XIII enter the final day three shots ahead in the team competition, on -21, with Range Goats in second on -18. The format for the first two days is that the best three rounds by the four-man team count towards the team score. But on the final day all the third-round scores count. Legion XIII is captained by Jon Rahm and also comprises Tyrrell Hatton, Caleb Surratt and Kieran Vincent. 

Legion XIII won the first event of the season, but the team way out in front of the standings are Crushers, who have won both the past two events. Crushers' other two results were second and fourth. Crushers – Bryson DeChambeau, Paul Casey, Charles Howell III and Anirban Lahiri – lie 8th at the moment in Miami.

Garcia to break his duck?

Sergio Garcia enters the final round two shots ahead of the field. He has been with LIV since its inception, but has yet to win on it. Last season he only finished inside the top-10 three times, although one of these was a second-placed finish in Singapore. This season he finished second in the season’s opener, but has followed that up with T26, T15 and T38 finishes.

Warm ups and over and all the players are now on the course

This is a bit more complicated than my couple of swishes with a club behind the 1st tee...

Who is playing with whom and how they started out on day three

Wolff goes in to joint second

Wolff birdies the 1st. Meanwhile Sergio Garcia has made par there. He opted to lay up on the par-5 1st, but then came up well short of the pin with his chip.

Burmester becomes joint leader

He has started birdie, birdie, and is on -9 with Garcia.

Garcia regains outright lead

We briefly had a three-way tie at the top of the leaderboard with Talor Gooch having joined the leaders on -9. But Sergio rolls in a relatively simple birdie putt to go to -10.

Masters pointers

Part of the subplot to this event is the looming first Major of the season and who is showing form for that. Thirteen of this field will be teeing it up next week at Augusta National. Seven of them have been invited as previous Masters champions and three more for winning another Major in the past five years,

The Masters champions in the field are Jon Rahm (defending champion); Dustin Johnson (2020); Patrick Reed (2018); Sergio Garcia (2017); Bubba Watson (2014 & 2012); Charl Swartzwel (2011) and Phil Mickelson (2010, 2006 & 2004).

Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith and Brooks Koepka have qualified for next week’s Masters as Major champions during the past five years, having won the US Open of 2020, The Open of 2022 and the 2023 PGA Championship respectively. Tyrrell Hatton, Adrian Meronk and Joaquin Niemann complete the LIV representation at Augusta.

How Garcia regained the outright lead

Legion XIII pulling away

Captain Rahm has holed a long-range birdie putt and his team are now six shots clear. This is the first time Rahm has contributed to extending the lead today after four pars previously.

Niemann on a charge

He has birdied three of his five holes and is now three shots behind Garcia.

Four-way tie for second

Louis Oostthuizen cards a birdie and joins the gaggle one-shot behind Garcia.

No sooner than I type that, but it all changes...

We have three joint leaders instead. A Hatton birdie means the Legion XIII player joins Burmester and Garcia on -10. None of this trio have won a LIV Golf event.

Familiar venue, different competitions

The Blue Monster hosted to the Doral Open on the PGA Tour from 1962 to 2006, and then from 2007 up until 2016 it was the venue for the WGC-Cadillac Championship. In the first two seasons of LIV it hosted the end-of-season Team Championship.

Legion XIII have a 76% win probability

Which seems generous as they are only three shots ahead with 4 x 11 holes to go. The computer obviously knows something I don't.

Wolff seizes sole lead

He cards an eagle on the 8th, putting in from the fringe of the green. But Garcia looks set to make a birdie in the next few moments.

Garcia joins Wolff on -11

A simple tap in tapped in for birdie

Hatton makes it a three-way tie at the top again

He has made four birdies in the past six holes.

Legion XIII's win probability...

..is now up to 84%. They are four shots clear.

Hatton takes solo lead

Garcia makes a bogey on the 9th after a bad chip. He has made two birdies and that bogey on front nine. Wollf also drops a shot to finish a front nine involving three birdies, an eagle and two bogeys. So Hatton (four birdies; five pars) is now alone in the lead.

Back to a four-way tie for lead

It's Hatton's turn to drop a shot. So that's him, Burmester, Garcia and Wolff on -10.

Which US state has the most golf courses?

Answer in five minutes.

The answer as to which US state has the most golf courses

Well it’s Florida, (which even if you didn’t actually know you may have guessed as this event is being held in Florida, so why else would we be asking the question.) California has the second most number of golf courses. No-one seems to agree on the exact figure for Florida, but it is well over a thousand courses. Florida offers quality golf as well as quantity.

Gooch joins the leaders on -10

Soon it is going to be easier to say who isn't in the lead.

Gooch has drowned his tee shot on 11

Could we see five become four at the top?

Hatton has a temper tantrum

This is when he realises he is going to miss the fairway on 10. But he has only hit two fairways all day. Yet he leads.

Gooch dos indeed drop a shot

His par putt from distance looks like it is going in. But it stays above ground. Just. Oh so close.

Wolff so close to taking lead

His putt on 11 was even nearer to going in than the Gooch's was. Luck was with neither of these players.

An ever-changing top of leaderboard has one constant

Sergio Garcia has been there ever since his birdie on the final hole of the first round. Since then he has either been in the sole lead or in the co-lead.

Bumerster into solo lead

Louis Oosthuizen had just made it a five-way tie at the top, but then Dean Burmester made it one at the top.

Caddie changes

Jon Rahm's caddie was taken ill before today’s round, so Rahm has a friend on his bag. Tyrrell Hatton’s caddy is also unwell, and so Hatton’s agent has stepped in to caddy for him. He is getting to hear a lot of swear words from his player during the course of the round. Five swear words in the last four short sentences, for example, as Hatton expressed his displeasure at missing yet another fairway.

Louis Oosthuizen joins Burmester in lead

Two South Africans... two members of Stinger GC... two in the lead... Stinger GC go second

Oosthuizen in trouble

He finds a greenside bunker in the par-3 15th and his escape from it rolls across the elevated green and down a slope towards water. But it holds up so stays dry. But he has this chip from the sloping rough to remain in the lead. 

A happier moment for Oosthuizen

Burmester has solo lead

Teammate Louis makes and up-and-down for a bogey, and Dean chases his birdie putt further past the hole than expected, but holes his par putt nevertheless. A one-shot lead.

Equipment changes

Many of the players this week have made changes to their equipment, as my eagle-eyed colleague Matt Cradock has noted.

Helping hand

Birdie putt on 15 gives Garcia share of lead again

Just before he played his shot the win probability gave Burmester at 51% and Garcia on 17%. They are now tied on -11. Louis Oosthuizen has just joined them on that figure, A three-way tie for the lead.

Burmester back in solo lead

Expect that win probability to change again. It had him and Garcia both on 39% before Burmester's last shot.

Oosthuizen hit his third shot on the par-4 17th into the water

Coming out of the sand, his ball flew over the green to a watery grave. That looks to have sunk the South African's victory chances.

Triple bogey for Oosthuizen on 17

That is him out of contention for the win, and also his team, Stinger GC, who drop into third place, seven shots off Legion XIII.

A glove for the help[omg hand

Garcia back in co-lead

He drains a 40ft birdie putt on 17. Plus Burmester is in trouble on 18... Could Garcia snatch this back for a debut LIV win?

Burmester's par put on 18...

..comes up way short.

Legion XIII are one shot ahead

At one stage that win probability computer had them at 96%. Can computer's sweat?

Burmester finishes on -11

His bogey on 18 means that Sergio Garcia will win if the Spaniard pars the final hole.

Garcia finds fairway on 18

He has 193 yards to the pin.

Sergio finds the green

But it a long way from the flag: this is not a simple two-putt coming up.

Garcia has played his birdie putt...

...and he still has a fair bit of work to do. Tense.

Garcia putts and....

....misses.

We have a playoff!

Between Burmester and Garcia. Sergio Garcia has been in two LIV playoffs and not won either of them. Third time lucky?

Legion XIII scrape home

They were nine shots ahead at one stage and end up winning by a single shot. But a win's a win.

Halved In Pars

Both Garcia and Burmester par the 18th and will head back up the final hole for a second playoff hole

SERGIO FINDS THE WATER

Both players hit great drives down the 18th, but it's Garcia who blinks first as he pulls his approach left and into the penalty area! Burmester has the advantage and his approach safely finds the green. Garcia is forced to drop well back on the last.

BURMESTER WINS LIV GOLF MIAMI

Garcia makes a superb up-and-down after taking a drop but, in the end, it's not enough, as the South African rolls in a three-footer for his first LIV Golf title! It's heartbreak for Garcia, who loses his third LIV Golf playoff in dramatic circumstances

THE WINNING MOMENT