The Fireballs, the most Spanish team of LIV Golf, has claimed the first victory of the season at the Real Club Valderrama. It couldn’t be in a better place or on a more appropriate day, just a couple of hours after Carlos Alcaraz‘s triumph at Wimbledon and about two and a half hours before the Eurocup final between Spain and England. The team of Sergio García, with Eugenio López Chacarra, David Puig and Abraham Ancer, the adopted Mexican, has prevailed on the first playoff hole against Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers.
The outcome of the team tournament has been as exciting as the individual one. A very short putt of just half a meter missed by Anirban Lahiri on hole 18 has caused the two playoffs, the individual against Sergio García, and the teams. The under par rounds of Sergio (five under today) and David Puig, one under par, have allowed the Fireballs to come back and reach the playoff.
Once in the playoff, a surprising decision has come from Sergio García. The captain has decided that the playoff would be played by Abraham Ancer and Puig, leaving Eugenio López Chacarra out of the contest. It is true that the Madrid player has signed today the worst round of the team (+3), but it is no less true that he has been classified in the tournament better than Ancer and Puig.
Be that as it may, that has been García’s decision and the result has proven him right, as Ancer and Puig have prevailed on the first playoff hole (hole 18) against Dechambeau and Paul Casey. They won with par, thanks to a great start from Ancer and a fantastic recovery from Puig from the 10th fairway. The two have achieved par, while DeChambeau and Casey, with two bad starts, have signed the bogey.
This is the fourth victory of the Fireballs in LIV Golf. They won once in 2022, twice last year and this has been the third triumph. It is also the first with David Puig on the team. With this conquest, the Fireballs move up to fifth place in the team standings, behind the Crushers, Legion XIII, Torque and Stingers. In addition, they pocket for the victory the not inconsiderable amount of three million dollars.
