The former PGA Tour star is no longer thirsty for cups thanks to LIV Golf
Going to the tournament system sponsored by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, Lee finished 34th in the debut tournament in Mexico but won the cup for the second time, in Tucson, Arizona. In that victory, Lee scored -9 after three rounds of The Gallery par71 and then had to play an extra hole with Louis Oosthuizen, Brendan Steele and Carlos Ortiz.
In the first round, Ortiz was eliminated. In the second turn, Lee missed the chance to win the championship in a putt 1.8 meters from the hole. But in the third round, he defeated both Steele and the former major champion The Open 2010 with a birdie stroke from the rough about two strides from the edge of the green.
With that result, Lee took home 4 million USD individually, adding 125,000 USD when Iron Heads ranked third in the team. "This victory means a lot, especially since I haven't been crowned since 2015 and because of that, I have lost confidence in winning," Lee said at the award ceremony.
Lee is 32 years old, New Zealand, playing professionally since 2009. He took a break from the PGA Tour last month to return to the LIV Golf League to play for the Iron Heads team at the invitation of captain Kevin Na. That decision made Lee famous for deserting and being banned again by the PGA Tour.
In the US golf arena, Lee has passed 303 tournaments with one championship, at the 2015 Greenbrier Classic, and the combined prize money is 15.36 million USD. In 11 seasons of the PGA Tour, there were two seasons when Lee failed to meet the standards, so he was demoted to the second division.
Lee said captain Na commented that the LIV Golf League environment could be better for Lee than the PGA Tour. "Perhaps he commented like that because he saw me constantly ploughing."
LIV Golf League 2023 has 14 regular tournaments and grand finals with a total bonus budget of USD 405 million. Meanwhile, this season PGA Tour has 48 tournaments with a frequency of almost weekly.
The usual LIV Golf League tournaments have individual and team groups, only three rounds and no elimination. Particularly for the grand finals, only group achievements are races.
LIV Golf League opened in June 2022 with eight tournaments for the first season, bringing together 48 players, mainly from the PGA Tour and DP World Tour Europe, along with a few young talents. Two months after its operation, the business that owns this arena began a back-and-forth lawsuit with the PGA Tour in a US court. The two sides are accusing each other of unfair competition and violating antitrust laws.
In the second season, the whole LIV Golf League has 60 members, divided equally into 12 teams, including the captain. All are no longer covered for accommodation and travel. Instead, each team is considered "a business", in which the owner side holds 75% of the shares, the rest goes to the captain. With this method, teams will have to take care of their own operating costs such as transportation, accommodation, salaries for members and also recruiting members through the transfer market. The player buying and selling activity is expected to take place in two months.
