Charl Schwartzel faltered down the stretch on Saturday, but, in the end, he had done enough already to win the inaugural LIV Golf Invitation event at Centurion Club in Hertfordshire and take home the largest cheque in the history of golf.
Schwarztel, the 2011 Masters champion, made double-bogey on the 12th, bogey on the 14th and again on the 18th, but his seven-under-par total for the 54-hole ‘tournament’ was enough to hold off young countryman Hennie du Plessis, who finished on six-under after a final round of level-par 70. Branden Grace finished third after he charged hard with a third round of five-under 65 brought him within two.
At the end of a week that was as controversial as it might be detrimental for the professional game, Schwartzel won $4-million, and well as his share of $3-million to the four-man team of which he was a member which comfortably won the team competition. Louis Oosthuizen was ‘captain’ of that team, which also featured Du Plessis and Grace.
So, in the end, Schwartzel won north of R75-million, and didn’t cover himself in glory when he said in response to a question about the morality of accepting money from the Saudi Arabian regime which is finding the LIV series, “In my whole career, I have never asked questions about the source of the money.”
Du Plessis won $2.125-million for his individual efforts, as well as the $750,000 for his share of the team prize. That’s well upwards of R45-million, compared to the R5.9-million he has won on the Sunshine Tour over 114 tournaments.
Oliver Bekker was the next-best of the South Africans who won money beyond his wildest dreams, finishing sixth for R800,000. JC Ritchie came 18th to win $226,000, Shaun Norris 24th for $168,000, Ian Snyman 26th for $164,000 and Zimbabwe’s Scott Vincent finished 20th for $200,000. Those were just their individual winnings.
