In March, it was announced that LIV Golf Miami would host the circuit’s first contest to feature popular content creators, with six influencers teaming up with six of the League’s team captains in a contest dubbed The Duels and offering a $250,000 prize.
The event took place at Trump National Doral before this week’s LIV Golf Miami tournament at the same venue, and was played over nine holes with a two-man scramble format, which sees each team member hitting a tee shot on every hole, with the pair then selecting the best shot to play from, continuing until the hole is completed.
Hy Flyers GC captain Phil Mickelson teamed up with Grant Horvat, with 4 Aces GC’s Dustin Johnson playing alongside Wesley Bryan. His brother, George, teamed up with Fireballs GC captain Sergio Garcia, with Torque GC’s Joaquin Niemann joining forces with Rick Shiels. Elsewhere, Ripper GC leader Cameron Smith was alongside Fat Perez, while Range Goats GC’s Bubba Watson teamed up with Luke Kwon.
Rick Shiels and Joaquin Niemann were one of six teams
The contest began streaming on Horvat’s YouTube channel before the third round of LIV Golf Miami, with the action getting underway from the 10th tee and Shiels having the honor of taking the first shot.
Shiels and Niemann made a confident start from their tee shots, but it wasn’t long until the next team, Wesley Bryan and Johnson, found trouble, with Bryan’s shot landing in the water to the left of the fairway before the 4 Aces GC captain dug them out of the hole.
Despite that jittery start, it was they who led after the first hole, along with Watson and Kwon. The two teams continued to set the pace over the opening holes, but it was a tight affair throughout, with the top and bottom of the leaderboard never separated by more than a few shots.
Others had their moments to break clear too, including Shiels and Niemann, and Garcia and George Bryan. However, by the time the teams reached the 18th, it was the latter pairing, along with Watson and Kwon, who held a slender advantage at the top, with Smith and Perez at the foot of the leaderboard and four off the pace.
Sergio Garcia and George Bryan won The Duels
Even on the last green, multiple teams were in with a realistic chance of going on to take the title, and Mickelson and Horvat came desperately close to entering the playoff reckoning before the HyFlyers GC captain’s putt to move to five-under lipped out.
That left Garcia to win it outright, but his putt came up agonizingly short, leading him and George Bryan, Watson and Kwon to head to a decider. There, Garcia had the chance to make amends for his earlier miss, and this time he holed the decisive putt to give his team the win.
LIV Golf Duels Miami Final Leaderboard
- T1 -5 Sergio Garcia/George Bryan (won playoff)
- T1 -5 Bubba Watson/Luke Kwon
- T3 -4 Phil Mickelson/Grant Horvat
- T3 -4 Joaquin Niemann/Rick Shiels
- 5th -3 Dustin Johnson/Wesley Bryan
- 6th -1 Cameron Smith/Fat Perez
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