There are days when even the fiercest of optimists find their thoughts challenged. When even, the strongest hearts waver. The final round of golf at the LIV Golf Adelaide was one such day. The Grange Golf Club witnessed one of the most intense final three holes where one golfer withstood the pressure while the other crumbled under it.

Just like the scales, when one side goes up the other has to go down. And this time Abraham Ancer’s side had to unfortunately go down as Joaquin Niemann prised a shocking but hard-earned win from the Mexican’s hands. Joaquin Niemann went bogey-free on the final day at Adelaide, the only player to do so to score an impressive 7 under par. He started the day 3 strokes from the lead and ended the day 3 strokes ahead of Carlos Ortiz and Ancer both at -10.

Despite increasing pressure from Niemann from the beginning, Ancer kept his cool, starting with two birdies to inherit the sole lead for the event. However, as Niemann kept increasing his birdie count, (he had 5 birdies by the end of hole 12) the pressure crept up to Ancer, as making par was just not going to cut it. Two consecutive bogeys on the 17th and 18th derailed any chance Ancer had. and Niemann rubbed salt onto the Mexican’s wounds by hitting a birdie on the last hole and pocketing the $4 million cash prize for the winner. Meanwhile, Carlos Ortiz, Niemann’s Torque GC teammate hit two birdies in the last two holes to finish T2 alongside Ancer.

Despite the loss on the personal front, Ancer’s team Fireballs GC comprising of him, David Puig, and Luis Masaveau and captained by Sergio Garcia won the Team event by a whopping six strokes over Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII GC. Abraham Ancer’s performance was a huge factor in the team winning the title, and Garcia had positive words to say to him after a crushing defeat on the individual front. “I just told him that I was proud of him and that obviously I know that he’s disappointed, but he did a lot of good things, and he has to remember those.”

Sergio Garcia, himself, would remember the crazy battle he had with Niemann last year at the Mayokaba event. Despite a rough start, Garcia had fought back on the last day to force a playoff for the win. However, Niemann outbattled Garcia in the playoff leading to the Chilean claim his first ever LIV Golf Victory.“Obviously, it always hurts. It happened to me two or three times last year.”

Right now, Ancer would need to focus on what he did good and use that as a motivator. The Mexican will be defending his LIV Hong Kong title on March 9 at the next LIV event. For that, he would need to be in prime condition both physically as well as mentally. “The good thing is I think he played really solid. That’s the most important thing, and he’s going to take all those positives,” said Garcia.

The team victory, however, was a huge positive for Mexican Ancer as his T2 finish was one of the biggest reasons for Fireballs GC’s victory.

Fireballs GC come up victorious in the team competition

The Spanish-speaking team consisting of Spaniards Sergio Garcia, Luis Masaveu, and David Puig, along with Mexican Abraham Ancer dominated the team competition. Youngster David Puig who has been on a fine run of form finished fourth, one stroke below Ancer, while captain Sergio Garcia finished T18 with a score of 4 under par. Luis Masaveu scored 2 above par to finish T37. The team pocketed $3 million in prize money for being the winners of the Team Competition.

Torque GC, despite having Joaquin Niemann and T2-placed Carlos Ortiz finished a disappointing 3rd as Sebastian Munoz and Mito Pereira finished 45th and 46th respectively with scores of 4 and 6 above par. Legion XIII captained by Jon Rahm had won the LIV Golf Riyadh team competition and finished second here at Adelaide. Rahm himself led his team, finishing 6th with a score of 7 under par. Tom Mckibbin finished T7(-6) while Dubai Desert Classic winner Tyrell Hatton finished T23(-2). Caleb Suratt finished T31 to complete the leaderboard for Legion XIII.

As the teams and golfers head to Hong Kong for the next event, viewers will be hoping that it turns out to be as exciting as the Adelaide version. What do you think of the last day’s action at Adelaide? Let us know in the comments!