Story By: Erin Zollars
Photos By: Sol Tucker
Gainesville, VA–
For those fans who stuck out the rain delays on the final round of LIV Virginia, they had a chance to see quite a good bit of close golf until the end, when Joaquin Neiman took home the hardware in the LIV Golf Virginia tournament, his 4th of the season.
For most of the day the crowd seemed to be focused on Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson, who really was the star of the round today. Not only did he almost stick one off the flag shot from the bunker on 10, but he also shot the most improbable shot over his head and right into the hole on 17.
“So that was one of my better ones,” said Mickelson, who added a birdie at No. 18 for a 6-under-par 65 and a 54-hole total of 13-under 200, two shots off the pace on a day that included nearly 2½ hours of suspended play because of downpours. “Even I was a bit surprised.”
There was quite a bit of time during the second 1 hour 46-minute rain delay that many who braved the elements didn’t even think the course would be playable. This may be the first time covering golf in over 20 plus years that a section of the course was released of water as if it was synthetic grass they were playing on. A little bit of squeegee work from the grounds crew and it was deemed that the round could continue.
“These are the types of tournaments that people come to see,” said Ryan Davis from Culpepper. I brought my son to see some great golfers and once we heard the roar of the crowd and got to see the Mickelson shot, it was pretty electric the rest of the way.
The amazing finish not only by Nieman and DeChambeau, but Mickelson gives a lot to pay attention to going into the U.S Open week at Oakmont next weekend.
On the team leaderboard, Crushers GC earned its eighth win on LIV Golf, which is the most of any team. Crushers GC has now won back-to-back team trophies after finishing first at LIV Golf Korea last month. Captain Bryson DeChambeau, Paul Casey, Anirban Lahiri and Charles Howell III have made up the Crushers since the team’s inception.
