Charles Howell III put together a blistering eight-under final round to secure a dominant victory at LIV Golf Mayakoba on Sunday.

In the first event of the LIV Golf season, Howell just got better as the week rolled on, posting a three-under 68 on Friday, before closing with a 66 on Saturday and a 63 to put the icing on the cake.

He finished four strokes clear of the field, also carrying his team Crushers GC to the team title. Along with Paul Casey, also in the top five at seven under, and captain Bryson DeChambeau at one under, Crushers GC gapped the competition by nine strokes.

It was Howell's first professional win since the 2018 RSM Classic, earning a $4million prize as the individual champion, as well as his share of $3m for the team's success.

Peter Uhlein ended up in second place at 12 under, but he had his sights set on the win prior to an ugly triple-bogey following a shanked drive, and a shanked provisional.

Branden Grace was third at 10 under, and then there was another three-stroke gap to the rest of the field.

Reigning Open champion Cameron Smith produced a four-under final round to climb into a tie for fifth at six under.

After winning the inaugural team title, 4 Aces GC were weighed down by a horrific seven-over final round from captain Dustin Johnson, but they still finished second in the team standings thanks to Uhlein and Pat Perez (five under).

Phil Mickelson will be pleased with his four-under final round, pulling him to one over for the tournament, while Bryson DeChambeau ended up at even par.

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.

Pat Perez has withdrawn his name from the lawsuit filed by LIV Golf players against the PGA Tour, stating the situation is "too ugly now".

The PGA Tour suspended all players who jumped ship to the Saudi-funded LIV Golf, which resulted in 11 players filing a lawsuit after claiming the action would harm their careers.

Carlos Ortiz removed his name from the suit shortly after it was filed and Perez's withdrawal leaves the total remaining at nine, as he acknowledged the messy situation that is developing in the golfing world.

"I'm a LIV guy 100 percent. I'm going to play for them. But I don't feel any need to go after the PGA Tour," Perez told Sports Illustrated.

"They gave me a wonderful opportunity for 21 years. I've got nothing against them, no hard feelings toward anybody. I earned everything I got out there, don't get me wrong."

Asked whether the LIV Golf and the PGA Tour could co-exist, Perez added that he felt any resolution is extremely unlikely.

The American added: "It's too deep; it's too ugly now. I don't see it happening anymore.

"There's just too much on both sides and it's gotten ugly. I just don't see a resolution, unfortunately. There was a time I did."

Elsewhere, LIV Golf chief Greg Norman has backtracked on his claims that Tiger Woods was offered a contract of $800million to defect after previously claiming that an offer in "that neighbourhood" was made.

Speaking to Fox Sports, Norman clarified the situation and said: "I just want to make sure for clarification here, the numbers that were thrown out were inclusive of future franchise value.

"And so if you take a look at this number that’s being thrown out there, the generational wealth that this franchise opportunity has for the individual players is incredible.

"That's how it is. It's not the cash value. We never offered that cash value to Tiger Woods. That's the reality of it."

Pat Perez insisted Phil Mickelson "doesn't speak for me" after the latter's inflammatory comments over a possible Saudi Arabia-backed Super Golf League.

A number of high-profile players are said to have been targeted by organisers of the lucrative Saudi-backed breakaway, including Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau.

But the most prominent names to have discussed the league publicly – including Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Collin Morikawa – have instead pledged their allegiance to the PGA Tour.

In a remarkable interview with the Fire Pit Collective's Alan Shipnuck, who is releasing a biography on Mickelson in May, the six-time major champion claimed that he and several other golfers paid their lawyers to construct the proposed breakaway competition's operating agreement.

This, as Mickelson put it, would be to "reshape how the PGA Tour operates", even though he stated Saudi Arabia has "a horrible record on human rights" and are "scary m*****f****** to get involved with".

"Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates," Mickelson explained.

"As nice a guy as [tour commissioner Jay] Monahan comes across as, unless you have leverage, he won't do what's right. And the Saudi money has finally given us that leverage.

"I'm not sure I even want [Super Golf League] to succeed, but just the idea of it is allowing us to get things done with the [PGA] Tour."

Justin Thomas, after his opening round at the Genesis Invitational, branded Mickelson's comments as "egotistical".

Speaking after going round in 70 on day one at the same event, Perez also hit out at the former world number two.

"He's made $800million on the Tour, I don't know what could be so bad about the Tour," Perez said.

"He doesn't speak for me. He's had an amazing career. He obviously thinks there's something else on the other side for him going down the line. If he gets it, great.

"I don't know what Phil's doing. I know Phil's got a lot of stress in life right now, and I don't know what he's doing."

Mickelson also claimed that "if the tour doesn't do the right thing, there is a high likelihood it's going to happen", and that around 20 players had signed up to the proposal.

© 2023 SportsMaxTV All Rights Reserved.