Bryson DeChambeau stormed back from eight shots off the lead and won the LIV Golf Chicago title on Sunday, September 24, in Sugar Grove, Ill.
DeChambeau’s final-round, 8–under 63 at Rich Harvest Farms propelled him to a 13–under 200 finish, one better than Australia’s Marc Leishman and India’s Anirban Lahiri. Sebastian Munoz of Colombia, who had the lead through two rounds, fell to fourth place at 11 under with a final-round 73.
It marks DeChambeau’s second win in the past three events on the Saudi-funded breakaway tour. He shot a final-round 58 to win LIV Golf Greenbrier in early August.
Lahiri three-putted the par-4 18th hole to go from a chance to win outright to a chance to force a playoff with DeChambeau to nothing at all.
DeChambeau and Lahiri are teammates on Crushers GC, who captured the Chicago team title at 33 under this week without even needing to count Lahiri’s 2–under 69 Sunday. DeChambeau, Charles Howell III (67) and Paul Casey of England (bogey-free 68) bolstered Crushers.
“I wanted to be in a playoff with Ban,” DeChambeau said. “He’s worked his butt off all year, and look, I couldn’t be happier that I won, but I feel so bad for Ban. I wanted to go into a playoff and battle it out with my brother.”
DeChambeau started his round at the fourth hole and made two early birdies before his only bogey of the day at the par-4 ninth. He responded right away with a string of three birdies, culminating in dramatic fashion at the par-3 12th.
DeChambeau holed a 78-foot birdie putt from across the green, up and over a ridge. It hit the pin and dropped in the hole, and all DeChambeau could only laugh in disbelief.
“Yeah, flipped everything. I couldn’t believe it,” DeChambeau said. “I kind of chunked a 9-iron a little bit and ... had an 80-footer, and I’m just trying to lag it up there, but it was going like 75, but it strikes the flag, and I took some paint off that flag, but it went in, and I dropped to the ground.
“I was like, ‘I can’t believe I just made that,' and I just went on a roll from there.”
He added four more birdies the rest of the way, including consecutive birdies at Nos. 17–18 before the final touch at the par-5 second.
It was Crushers’ second win of the season after a season-opening victory at LIV Golf Mayakoba. They placed second in each of the past two tournaments and rank second in the season standings, giving chase to 4Aces GC.
“I love them,” DeChambeau said of his teammates. “I can’t think highly enough about each and every individual, how outstanding they are, just from a complementary point of view. You look at them each as individuals, but as a team together, we’re pretty dominant force, I can tell you that.”
Zach Johnson: ‘Simple manner’ why Bryson DeChambeau not in Ryder Cup
Bryson DeChambeau stirred the Ryder Cup debate after winning his second LIV Golf event in as many months on Sunday, saying he believes there are “numerous” players on the breakaway tour who should be competing in Rome this week.As it is, American Brooks Koepka is the lone LIV representative. The five-time major winner did fall out of an automatic spot on the United States team just before the end of the qualifying period, but earned one of Zach Johnson’s six captain’s picks.
DeChambeau believes he is among others who should have received spots.
“If you look at it, it would have been nice to at least just have a call. There’s numerous people that I think Zach should have called out here, and we didn’t get that,” DeChambeau said after his win outside Chicago on Sunday.
“I understand, I get it, but we’re nothing different. We’re still competing. We’re still working super hard to be the best we possibly can be.”
From the sound of it, Koepka was the only LIV player Johnson ultimately considered. Team USA’s first-time captain was asked during Monday’s opening press conference why he didn’t call on DeChambeau and other Ryder Cup veterans such as Dustin Johnson.
“Yeah, I can answer all of those in a very simple manner,” Johnson said. “We kept a tally of – we have a points system within The PGA of America, within the Ryder Cup USA. It’s pretty evident ... how you garner points and which tournaments can accumulate points.
“I basically, you know, I kept at one point – I mean, I have my own probably a top 30 but when it got down towards the end of the process, it was the top 20, the top 25 guys in that point system that I felt like had the merit and certainly, well, should have my full attention. That’s where I was. I was basically in the top 20, top 25 guys in points when it came down to formulating this Team USA.”
Koepka finished seventh in the U.S. Ryder Cup standings, with No. 15 Justin Thomas the lowest-ranked player to receive a captain’s pick.
With only the four majors to accumulate Ryder Cup points in, Johnson finished 40th and DeChambeau 54th. Dustin Johnson has fallen to 114th in the Official World Golf Ranking while DeChambeau is 128th. Talor Gooch, another multiple-time LIV winner, finished 89th in the Ryder Cup standings and is now 167th in the world.
DeChambeau, who is a combined 2–3–1 in two previous Ryder Cup appearances, said he hopes the qualification system will be different when the event returns to the U.S. in New York two years from now.
“Brooks is obviously going to kill it for Team USA next week and excited for the team, but yeah, it definitely does sting a little bit,” he said. “Say what you want, we’re still golfers, and I personally think that given the way I played this week, I could have definitely racked up some points for Team USA.
“But that’s neither here nor there. As time has gone on, hopefully I'll be in line for it in a couple years.”
