Dustin Johnson Wins $18m As LIV Golf Individual Champion

When Dustin Johnson was unveiled as one of LIV Golf’s marquee signings before the opening tournament in June, he stood out as a high-calibre player in his peak years. Since then, then, the American has lived up to his billing by securing the inaugural LIV Golf Individual Championship to claim $18m.

Johnson finished 16th at the LIV Golf Invitational Bangkok, earning the two-time Major winner three points in the Individual Championship standings. That was enough to give him an insurmountable lead going into the final tournament of the regular season in Saudi Arabia, guaranteeing him the huge prize money.

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Thanks to an impressive debut season in the Series, including five top-10 finishes and a win in the LIV Golf Invitational Boston, Johnson has amassed 121 points to sit 42 points clear of Branden Grace in second. The top 24 in each tournament are awarded points. Forty points are awarded to the winner, meaning that, even if Johnson finishes outside the top 24 in Saudi Arabia and Grace wins, the 38-year-old can’t be caught.

Johnson was understandably delighted to claim the title. He said: “Locking up the individual competition is big. It’s an honour to be LIV’s first individual season champion. I’d like to thank Greg Norman and LIV for their confidence in me, my brother and caddie Austin, my wife Paulina, my 4 Aces teammates Pat, Patrick, and Talor, as well as LIV’s growing legion of fans around the world. Our team is in a really good position with two events to go and I’m looking forward to further contributing to LIV Golf’s exciting story and continued growth.”

LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman added his congratulations to Johnson, saying: “The first chapter of LIV Golf’s history could not be written without Dustin Johnson’s name. By any measure, DJ is among the elite players in the world. From the start, he’s been a LIV Golf cornerstone. 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.”

While Johnson has wrapped up the title, there is big money on offer to the players finishing immediately beneath him, with the runner-up earning $8 million and $4 million for the player finishing third. Patrick Reed is currently beneath Grace in third, but over a dozen players could still achieve a podium finish, including Matthew Wolff, Louis Oosthuizen, Sergio Garcia, Joaquin Niemann, Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra, Henrik Stenson and Paul Casey.

Partly thanks to Johnson’s individual success, his 4 Aces GC team has dominated the team event, and will be the number one seed in the $50m Team Championship tournament that concludes the inaugural season at the end of the month. With $16m going to the winning team at Trump National Doral, there's every chance Johnson could claim another sizeable prize at the end of the month.