Bangkok, Thailand- Dustin Johnson has won the inaugural LIV Golf individual championship, after having amassed an insurmountable 42-point lead over the weekend.
The Two-time Major winner also pocketed US$18 million. The American has also had five top-10 finishes in the opening six events of the Saudi-backed series.
“Locking up the individual competition is big. It’s an honour to be LIV’s first individual season champion,” said Johnson.
In addition, LIV Golf CEO, Greg Norman, said Johnson deserved immense credit for clinching the championship.
“The first chapter of LIV Golf’s history could not be written without Dustin Johnson’s name. By any measure, DJ is among the elite players in the world. From the start, he has been a LIV Golf cornerstone. He has more than lived up to his billing and he deserves immense credit for clinching LIV’s first individual season title,” said Norman.
Moreso, the runner-up in the final individual standings will earn US$8 million with US$4 million awarded to the third placed.
The individual competition concludes in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from the 14th to the 16th of October afterwards a season-ending team championship event will be held in Miami, United States (US) between the 28th to the 30th of October.
LIV Golf has attracted some of golf’s biggest stars including Johnson, British Open champion Cameron Smith and six-time Major winner Phil Mickelson.
However, LIV golfers have been banned from the US PGA Tour and have all plummeted down the world rankings.
On Thursday, Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) said LIV Golf players will not be able to earn world ranking points citing it received insufficient notice to conduct a review before the series’ upcoming October events.
“Notice of these changes given by the Mena Tour is insufficient to allow OWGR to conduct the customary necessary review ahead of the LIV Golf Invitational Bangkok and LIV Golf Invitational Jeddah.
Only after the review is complete will a decision be made on awarding points to the Mena Tour’s new Limited Field Tournaments. Regular official Mena Tour events conducted over 54 or 72 holes with a cut after 36 holes, and its Tour Championship, typically conducted over 54 holes with no cut, remain eligible for inclusion in the OWGR,” read a statement from the OWGR.
Prior to the statement by the OWGR, the 48 players who featured in LIV’s event in the US in Chicago last month, including Smith and Mickelson, wrote to the OWGR chairperson, Peter Dawson requesting ranking points to be attributed to past and future events.
