The King has returned. Sergio García has won the LIV Golf Andalucía. It had to be in Valderrama. It had to be suffering. That’s Sergio García. A third of his victories have come in a playoff. He won on the second playoff hole against Anirban Lahiri, after an exciting and anguishing end to the tournament.
It’s the first triumph of the Spanish golfer in LIV Golf, after losing three playoffs, and his first victory in almost four years, since October 2020, when he won the Sanderson Farms Championship. It had to be in Valderrama. There are already 37 professional victories, four of them have come in the coliseum of Sotogrande. His course. His garden. His everything. Today he made 66 strokes.
The last day of the LIV Andalucía had a lot of substance. Sergio has displayed colossal golf for twelve holes. His golf in Valderrama. The clinical golf that only he knows how to put on the Cadiz mat time and time again. The exhibition in those first two thirds of the round was exceptional. He started with a birdie on hole 4, his start of the round, and by his eleventh hole of the day (14) he was six under par. Crazy. He was scratching and scratching strokes against an Anirban Lahiri who was suffering. He held on as best he could, although with more hardships than joys. Tyrrell Hatton was the one who did the most to join the battle of the Indian and the Spaniard, but in the end his notable effort was not enough.
Sergio was pressing and Lahiri was suffering. That was the reality of the tournament with six holes to go, but after that birdie on the 14th, the matter took a turn. García, who already saw himself really with chances of winning, tied with Anirban, began to suffer. How difficult it is to close a tournament. He saved the 15th in a notable way, but from there came the inaccuracies. He missed the second shot on the 16th, the tee shot on the 17th, the second on the 18th, the tee shot on the 1st and the second on the 2nd. However, he managed with his magic around the green and some impressive recovery shots to keep saving pars.
Sergio was surviving, but the wire ended up breaking on hole 3, the last of his round. He caught the green, although short and with the flag at the back. He had a very long putt left. The birdie attempt was bad and he left a lot of work. Just under three meters with the tournament being decided. It’s not a good thing. He missed the par putt and made his first bogey of the day. It seemed like the definitive bogey that was going to take away that coveted first victory in the LIV.
And it is that at the same time that this was happening on the 3rd, Lahiri made a birdie on the 17th and went out to the 18th with a one-stroke lead over Sergio. The Indian needed the par. He played the hole well. He caught the fairway, the green and left a par putt of just half a meter. It was done. Or so it seemed… He missed the putt. Incredible. Tie. He had been playing with fire all day, making a lot of putts on the last round, some that seemed missed and ended up going in, until the last one. Until the decisive one. It’s Lahiri’s cross, who hasn’t won in eight years. He ended up sunk and that’s how he went out to play the playoff. Hole 18.
They tied it the first time they played it, both making delicate and committed par putts. The second time Sergio won. His revenge. It had to be in Valderrama. He played the hole perfectly and made par. Lahiri also contributed with an ugly double bogey, missing the tee shot to the right. It was over.
Sergio finally wins in LIV Golf and puts a first cherry on top of a very good season. It’s a shame we won’t see him in the Open Championship, as he would be one of the candidates. With this victory, Sergio is now third in the LIV Golf individual ranking, behind Joaco Niemann and Jon Rahm. In addition, he pockets four million dollars in prize money.
