Ancer eyes Olympics after playoff win in Hong Kong in LIV Golf League
Abraham Ancer set his sights on Olympic gold after he won a three-man playoff yesterday to win in the LIV Golf League in Hong Kong.
The Mexican, who won on the Saudi Arabia breakaway tour for the first time in Hong Kong at the weekend, fended off Englishman Paul Casey and former Open winner Cameron Smith to become the 14th individual winner in LIV Golf and take home $4m (£3.1m).
Ancer was leading by five heading into the last day but almost capitulated his lead with a two-over 72 final round as Smith and Casey performed superbly at the Hong Kong Golf Club to tie with the Mexican on 13-under par.
Ancer then won the playoff at the first attempt on the 18th hole.
“Man, I made that so hard on myself,” said the 33-year-old. “It was definitely a grind.
“I made it a lot more stressful than I envisioned it … I’m really proud of how I felt mentally and how I fought the whole round not having my best stuff.
“Mentally I was really strong and I felt really good, I felt like I was not going to give up and that round could have gone south really quickly but I hit some good shots when I needed to and kept myself in it to win the playoff.”
Ancer won the Pan American Games in November last year and finished tied for 14th at the Tokyo Olympics, an event he plans to target this year in Paris.
“Gold is one of the goals for me this year,” Ancer added. “I will hopefully be there and kick some ass.”
In the team competition, the Crushers – Casey, Bryson DeChambeau, Charles Howell III and Anirban Lahiri – came from seven shots back on Championship Sunday to take the title by two shots on 35-under par.
Joaquin Niemann’s Torque GC came in second with Smith’s Ripper GC in third on 33-under and 32-under respectively.
“What a great group of guys,” Casey said. “We’ve got something – we spoke briefly about it after Jeddah, that we’ve got something that you can’t measure, and I firmly believe that.”
DeChambeau said: “We know with four scores counting, we’re going to be in it no matter what the last day. We put the pedal to the metal today and showcased who we are.”
With the LIV Golf championship now taking a break until the travelling group head to Miami at the start of next month,
Niemann’s fourth place, having won in Mexico and Jeddah earlier on in the season, was enough to keep him top of the individual standings.
He is well clear of Jon Rahm in second and Dustin Johnson in third. Ancer’s win was enough to catapult him to fifth after results of tied 28th, tied 21st and tied 12th in the three rounds before Hong Kong.
DeChambeau’s Crushers, having won back-to-back team titles, are top of the group standings ahead of Torque GC – who are without a win – Smash GC and Legion XIII.
The Trump National Doral will host round five of the LIV Golf League on 5 April with the Masters at Augusta National just a week later.