Danny Lee sinks walk-off birdie putt to win LIV Golf Tucson Invitational

Danny Lee had two options: chip or putt. He chose the latter and earned a $4 million payday.

On the third go-round of a sudden-death playoff on the 18th hole at The Gallery Golf Club near Dove Mountain on Sunday, Lee canned a 20-foot putt from the rough to the right of the pin and in front of the grandstand to become the LIV Golf Tucson Invitational champion, outlasting Louis Oosthuizen, Brendan Steele and Carlos Ortiz in a four-man playoff.

Lee’s Iron Heads Golf Club teammates — captain Kevin Na, Sihwan Kim and Scott Vincent — congratulated him with a champagne shower before he could even pick up the ball nestled in the cup.

The triumph marked the first LIV Golf victory for the 32-year-old New Zealand and South Korea native, who recently joined the Saudi-financed rebel golf league for its second season. It’s also the first time he’s won a professional event since 2015, when he won the Greenbrier Classic on the PGA Tour.

LIV Golf’s Tucson event was also the third time the league had a playoff; there were playoffs in the Boston and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, events last season.

“It feels pretty amazing,” Lee said. “Last win I had was (in) 2015 at Greenbrier. That was also a four-man playoff. Maybe it was a coincidence, I don’t know. But it feels pretty amazing right now.”

Fireballs Golf Club, captained by Sergio Garcia, won the team leaderboard, shooting 25 under collectively. Abraham Ancer, Eugenio Chacarra, Garcia and Ortiz — who tied for second with Steele (HyFlyers Golf Club) and Oosthuizen (Stingers Golf Club) — will split $3 million four ways. Ortiz, Steele and Oosthuizen will each receive $1.58 million for their second-place finishes.

“Obviously super excited about getting another team win after last year in Bangkok, and super proud of all of them, especially Carlos, the way he played today,” Garcia said. “Shame he couldn’t get the individual win.”

Second-place finisher, 4Aces Golf Club, will share $1.5 million, while Iron Heads Golf Club will divide up $500,000 as a team. In total, Lee walked away from the event with $4.125 million.

It wasn’t easy, though.

Lee entered Sunday trailing second-day leader Marc Leishman (11 under) by four shots, while Oosthuizen, Steele and Charles Howell (Crushers Golf Club) were each three shots back (8 under).

To make it even more challenging, the weather on Sunday was gusty with winds ranging from 15-20 mph. Chacarra from Fireballs GC said “it definitely played like another course the first 14 holes.”

“It’s just nice to see how courses can change, and for me, I’ve only been a pro for six months, so I didn’t have match experience on courses changing much, and people still (were) scoring really good like Carlos did,” Chacarra said.

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Trailing Steele, Ortiz and Lee by one shot after bogeying on the 17th hole, Oosthuizen forced a playoff with a birdie putt on the 18th hole. The playoff format for LIV Golf is to repeat the 18th hole, a par-4 in this case, until someone earns the victory. Ortiz was eliminated after bogeying the first playoff hole.

On the second go-around, Lee’s approach shot bounced just over the lip of the bunker and rolled five feet past the pin. He missed a seemingly routine birdie putt, leaving the door open for Oosthuizen and Steele to extend the playoff one more time, which they did.

“I mean, when I missed that short birdie putt on the second hole, I was going through some emotions like, ‘Oh, my God, what have you done, you idiot,’ “ Lee said. “I was just trying not to react to anything. I know my ball-striking is there. I was hitting my driver really good all week.”

With Oosthuizen missing a 25-foot birdie putt from the back of the green on the third playoff, all Lee had to do was make his third shot from the rough.

Third time’s the charm.

“I wasn’t thinking about missing the green to the right with a pitching wedge on the third playoff hole,” Lee said. “And I think I got pretty lucky on the birdie putt.”

“Whenever I play in a tournament, I never really look at the prize money or anything like that. I just want to be the best I can be.

“I mean, there’s so many great players, legendary players out here. This week, I’m the man!”

Chip shots

At the end of the season in November, the top 24 players in the LIV Golf individual point standings will return for Season 3. Only the top 24 players on leaderboards at tournaments earn points. The winner of each tournament earns 40 points, second-place is awarded 30, third-place receives 24.

HyFlyers captain and former Arizona State Sun Devil Phil Mickelson finished tied for 28th after shooting 1 under over three days. Dustin Johnson, 4Aces GC captain, was tied for 11th (5 under).

Bryson DeChambeau was 7 over to finish tied for 42nd place. His former longtime rival, Brooks Koepka, was 2 under and tied for 22nd.