Johnson celebrates 'unbelievable finale' as 4Aces edge Smith's Punch for LIV Golf's Team Championship

By Sports Desk October 31, 2022

Dustin Johnson capped off a huge year by pipping Cameron Smith to clinch victory for the all-American 4 Aces GF at the LIV Golf Miami Team Championship on Sunday.

Johnson nailed a routine final putt of the season to cue the celebrations for his team, featuring Patrick Reed, Lalor Gooch and Pat Perez whom all had solid rounds in Sunday's Championship.

The Aces were crowned the inaugural LIV Golf team champions at Trump National Doral by one shot ahead of Cameron Smith's Punch GC, with Brooks Koepka's Smash GC and Louis Oosthuizen's Stinger GC well back.

The triumph capped a money-spinning season for two-time major winner Johnson, finishing with more than $35 million in earnings.

"It's been amazing," Johnson said. "This week's been incredible. This whole season has gotten better and better and obviously this finale has been unbelievable."

Among the four Aces players, they scored a combined seven-under 281 in the singles stroke-play on Sunday, with Johnson, Reed and Perez all finishing two-under-par, while Gooch was one under, having started the round with three birdies in his first for holes.

Johnson's team edged out Punch for whom Smith carded a round-best seven-under-par 65 with eight birdies. That was offset by Marc Leishman's 74, Wade Ormsby's 73 and Matt Jones' 70 as Punch combined for a six-under 282.

Smith, who won this year's Players' Championship before joining the LIV Tour, went head-to-head with Johnson.

Smash finished 11 strokes behind with a combined four-over 292, with Jason Kokrak their best with a four-under-par 68.

Stinger were a further six shots behind Smash with a combined 10-over 298, despite one-under rounds from Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel, with Branden Grace shooting an 80.

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