Brooks Koepka warmed up for the defence of his PGA Championship title at Valhalla in two weeks' time by claiming the LIV Golf Singapore trophy on Sunday.
The American was the overnight leader at Sentosa Golf Club and carded a final-round 68 (-3) to top the leaderboard on 15-under by two strokes from Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman - both from the victorious Ripper GC in the team standings.
Koepka's teammate and defending champion, Talor Gooch finished fourth on 12-under as Tyrrell Hatton and Thomas Pieters shared fifth a shot further back.
Smith and Leishman surged up the table thanks to rounds of seven-under and six-under, respectively. Those scores went a long way to helping the Aussie club record its second consecutive team success following on from LIV Golf Adelaide, with 32-under seeing Smith and co. win by three from Fireballs GC and Cleeks GC.
It could have been a much more comfortable Sunday for the American, though, if only a few more putts had dropped on the back nine. While Koepka only managed one-under through the final nine holes, the Ripper GC captain and his teammate - especially - were tearing up the bucket-list course.
The moment @BKoepka took the W 🏆And a wholesome celebration to match 🥰#LIVGolf @SmashGC pic.twitter.com/x8QyljWDiNMay 5, 2024
Smith recorded six birdies and no bogeys between holes nine and 18, having started on hole three, and Leishman managed five birdies without a dropped shot - having begun on two. But the charge would end there after the Open champion of 2022 finished par-par, while Leishman produced a bogey on his final hole to restore Koepka's two-shot advantage.
Ultimately, the five-time Major winner held on to claim his fourth individual LIV Golf title, adding on to LIV Golf Jeddah in 2022 and 2023, plus LIV Golf Orlando in 2023.
Reacting to his win, Koepka said: "Yeah, it's all starting to come around. I've put in a lot of work. I feel like on the golf course, off the golf course, it's been a good two weeks, to say the least.
"Take a week off and then grinding pretty hard with Claude over the last few days, I thought that was very important. Kind of started to see it turn maybe Wednesday, Thursday of Adelaide, so to see it pay off here is huge."
Victory for Koepka now puts him first in terms of most individual titles since LIV's inception in 2022, and the new dad was delighted to achieve the feat in front of his wife and son, Crew.
Koepka said: "Yeah, it's awesome. It's such a cool feeling. It's great to have them here. I finished better than 40th or 45th, like the last few times he's been there. At least he got to see me do something a little better than that."
Meanwhile, Smith - the victorious team captain of Ripper GC - admitted his quartet did take a little bit of time to hit their straps at the start of the season but he now feels like they are the team to beat.
He said: "Yeah, I mean, I'm very proud of them. I knew that we had it in us, though, and it was just a matter of time. There was probably a few lazy boys over Christmas, to be honest, and it took us a little bit to get going, but this is how we expect to play, and this is how we want to keep playing. We'll try and make it three in Houston."
LIV now takes a month break for the PGA Championship and will return between June 7-9 as LIV Golf Houston makes its debut at Golf Club of Houston.
