Chile’s Joaquin Niemann has produced a stunning final round to win LIV Golf’s Adelaide tournament.
Niemann carded a stellar seven-under 65 on Sunday at the Grange Golf Club to pip Mexican Abraham Ancer by two shots.
The former Australian Open winner finished 13 under for the tournament to collect the $US4mwinner’s cheque.
Ancer, who held top billing for much of the final round before bogeys on the 14th and 17th holes, posted 11 under.
Spain’s David Puig and Carlos Ortiz tied for third place at nine under ahead of Richard Bland (eight under) and former world No 1 Jon Rahm (seven under).
Niemann fired seven birdies in a blemish-free final round for his third victory on the LIV Golf tour.
Marc Leishman was the best-placed Australian, finishing three under and tied for 21st.
Leishman, Cam Smith (one under), Lucas Herbert (even) and Matt Jones (three over) failed to successfully defend their team title for Ripper GC.
The all-Australian team logged a combined one under total, a whopping 21 strokes behind the winning team, Fireballs GC captained by Spanish great Sergio Garcia and also featuring Ancer.
The victory of Niemann, who also won the 2023 Australian Open, came as Adelaide secured host city rights for a LIV Golf tournament until 2031.
The event will remain at The Grange, where more than 100,000 spectators attended the latest tournament, until 2028 before shifting to a city course redeveloped by Greg Norman.
Norman will oversee the design and redevelopment of the current North Adelaide golf course on the fringe of Adelaide’s central business district.
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Adelaide’s contract to host had been due to expire next year, which will be the fourth LIV tournament in the SA capital.
But amid other Australian cities pitching interest to host, SA Premier Peter Malinauskas secured an extension.
The North Adelaide site currently has three public courses – a championship length par-72 course, a shorter par-68 course and a par-3 course.
“We will now have something that is globally unique … to have the world’s best golfers teeing off on one of the world’s best public golf courses in the middle of a metropolitan city,” Malinauskas said.
Norman spent two days this week assessing the North Adelaide lay-outs.
“As a golf course designer you very seldom get the opportunity to be involved with a project downtown,” Norman said. “North Adelaide Golf Club is basically a diamond in the rough and we’re going to unpick it.”
