SINGAPORE: Lee Westwood has 44 professional wins across 20 different countries in his storied career. Now at age 52, six years removed from his last victory and having just returned from a wrist injury, the Majesticks Golf Club co-captain is in position to finish off arguably his most impressive performance.
Westwood enters Sunday’s final round at Aramco LIV Golf Singapore as the co-leader at 10 under with Torque GC Captain Joaquin Niemann. The Englishman will play in the final group of the final round for the first time in his LIV Golf career as he seeks to become the oldest player to win a league individual title.
“I’m 53 on the 24th of April, so at that stage, it would probably be the best win of my career,” Westwood said after making birdies on three of his final four holes to shoot a 3-under 68 in difficult conditions at Sentosa Golf Club.
“All of my wins have special memories. But to still be competitive at my age and up there and having chances to win tournaments like this is validation for driving myself on and doing all the hard work and practice that nobody sees and still being competitive and having a good enough game to compete against them.”
Westwood, however, isn’t the only player entering Sunday in the hunt to make history.
Niemann, who won five times last season but started slowly this season, made a charge of his own up the leaderboard, shooting a 5-under 66 that included seven birdies and two bogeys. With a win, Niemann would earn his eighth LIV Golf victory — three more than any other player in league history.
“I hit the ball unbelievable today compared to the other days,” Niemann said. “I was able to see the ball in the windows that I was seeing in my mind. Yeah, it was nice. I played pretty confident. I was able to attack a lot of pins.”
Niemann will enter the final round of a tournament with the lead or co-lead for the fifth time in his LIV Golf career. He went on to win in each of the four previous times (Mayakoba and Jeddah in 2024; Singapore and the UK last season). A win would make him just the second player to successfully defend a LIV Golf title after Brooks Koepka in Jeddah (2022-23).
Bryson DeChambeau, who entered the third round with a three-shot lead, struggled to a 1-over 72 but made the best of a tough day to keep himself in the tournament at just one shot back of the co-leaders. The Crushers GC captain made three birdies that were offset by four bogeys as he struggled with a cold putter throughout the round.
Richard T. Lee is tied for third with DeChambeau after shooting a 2-under 69 and, like Niemann and Westwood, has a chance to set league history. A win would make him the first LIV Golf Wild Card player to earn a tournament title, and he’s also on pace to eclipse the best-ever finish for a LIV Golf Wild Card player (T12).
After the top four, a bunched pack of players are well within reach of an individual victory. Jon Rahm, whose streak of 23 consecutive rounds under par ended with an even-par 71 is three shots back of the lead at 7 under.
The individual leaderboard should create a thriller on Sunday, but the team leaderboard is just as chaotic.
Hong Kong champions 4Aces GC surged to the top of the leaderboard after under-par rounds from three of their four players, giving them a score of 16 under for the week. Dustin Johnson (68), Anthony Kim (68) and Thomas Pieters (70) produced strong rounds for the resurgent squad while Thomas Detry (73) slipped down the leaderboard after two brilliant rounds of 68-67 to begin the week.
“Obviously we’re in a really good position,” 4Aces captain Dustin Johnson said. “But it’s going to take all four of us playing well tomorrow. This golf course is hard, and if we all four play well, then we’ll probably have a really good chance to win.”
Success on Sunday means the Aces would win in back-to-back starts for the first time since LIV Golf’s inaugural season in 2022.
Ripper GC, who won the first two tournaments this season, and defending Team Champions Legion XIII are just two shots back of the Aces. The Australian squad was led by Elvis Smylie, who shot a bogey-free 4-under 67 that included an eagle and two birdies while Legion XIII was led by a 2-under 69 from Tyrrell Hatton.
Like their captain, Crushers GC entered the day with a three-shot lead. The team shot 9-over for the round with all four of their players shooting over par, dropping them all the way to sixth.
