Spain’s Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra identified himself as the man to beat at the LIV Golf Invitational Series – Bangkok with a second round of 63, and for much of the final day the 22-year-old looked comfortable chasing a first professional win.
Starting the final round with a five-shot lead, it was American major winner Patrick Reed who put the most pressure on the long putter wielding former No.2 amateur in the world. Reed firing approach shots close to the hole to get within one shot of Chacarra on two occasions, only for the Spaniard to respond with birdies at crucial times.
Sitting a two-under for the day and 18-under for the week with three holes to play, Chacarra and the rest of the 48-player field were forced from the course.
After play was suspended for 90 minutes due to torrential rain, wind, thunder and lightning, Chacarra made birdie at the 17th hole to win by three shots from Reed.
“Feels great. I mean, I don't think there's a lot of secret. Just trusting yourself and working hard every day,” Chacarra, who becomes the sixth LIV winner in six events said. “That's what they teach me when I was young and what these guys tell me you need to do, and trusting your team, having a good team, and just work and work I would say.”
Chacarra’s play also helping his Fireballs GC team of Sergio Garcia, Abraham Ancer and Carlos Ortiz to the team title.
One shot back of Reed at 15-under were English veterans Paul Casey and Richard Bland, as well as Sihwan Kim.
Marc Leishman was the best of the Aussies in a tie for 10th on 11-under, Matt Jones was next best in T15 at nine-under, while Wade Ormsby was tied for 27th on seven-under-par.
Young Queenslander Jed Morgan got to 10-under and within five shots of the lead with a magnificent approach on the par-4 8th that led to a tap-in birdie.
But the wheels fell off for the 22-year-old when he thinned his approach on 9 and buried his ball deep into the face of the fairway bunker. After a rules official was found, he required two drops and eight attempts to place the ball, since it continued to run back into the trap. Morgan then hit a 7-iron 160 metres uphill into the wind onto the green and carded a bogey-5.
Further bogeys on 12, 13, 17 and 18 left him to finish tied for 20th, pocketing $310,000. After his round on Saturday Morgan stated his desire to continue with LIV Golf in 2023 because that's "when the world ranking points come".
LIV Golf has formed alliances with the Asian Tour and the little-known Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Tour in a bid for Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points, which it hopes will bring leverage to recruit more star players.
The Tour heads to Saudi Arabia next week to contest the LIV Golf Invitational Series – Jeddah.
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