Dustin Johnson won LIV Golf’s individual crown before the series made it to the Kingdom.
As the upstart circuit led by Greg Norman and backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund prepares to host its regular-season finale in Jeddah later this week, Johnson left little to play for after claiming the individual title and its $18-million prize following his 16th-place finish at last week’s event in Bangkok.
LIV’s season-long individual competition awards points to the top 24 finishers from each event. Johnson, who bagged five top-10 finishes and a win over the first six events, has 121 points to his name, 42 more than Branden Grace in second. This week’s event in Jeddah offers 40 points to the winner and 30 points for second place.
“Locking up the individual competition is big. It’s an honor to be LIV’s first individual season champion,” Johnson said via a release. Over six events the two-time major champion has earned $9,758,600 for his individual performances and $3,000,000 for his 4Aces team performances for a whopping total of $12,758,600.
“From the start, he’s been a LIV Golf cornerstone,” Norman said of Johnson. “He has more than lived up to his billing and he deserves immense credit for clinching LIV’s first individual season title. We look forward to a celebration befitting such a champion in Miami at the end of October.”
Finishing second and third on the season-long points list can still earn players a quick bonus seeing as the runner-up will earn $8 million with another $4 million going to third place. As it stands, Nos. 2-15 are separated by just 39 points: Grace (79), Patrick Reed (76), Cameron Smith (56), Charl Schwartzel (55), Carlos Ortiz (50), Matthew Wolff (50), Peter Uihlein (49), Louis Oosthuizen (49), Talor Gooch (49), Sergio Garcia (44), Joaquin Niemann (42), Eugenio Chacarra (41), Henrik Stenson (40) and Paul Casey (40).
Following this week’s event in Saudi Arabia, the series will return stateside for the LIV Golf Team Championship in Miami at Trump National Doral, Oct. 28-30, where teams will compete for $50 million.
[listicle id=778298233]
[mm-video type=playlist id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=01evcfxp4q8949fs1e image=https://golfweek.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]