LIV Golf star Sihwan Kim earned a cool £100,000 in prize money despite coming dead last in the Saudi-backed series' season-opening event at Mayakoba.
Kim teed it up alongside the likes of Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Cameron Smith and Brooks Koepka in last week's tournament in Mexico. Despite being one of the breakaway circuit's lesser-known names, the American star did more than enough to earn a spot on LIV's second season roster.
However his opening week of the extended 14-event campaign was one to forget on the course, as Kim finished the tournament in Mexico dead last after carding 23-over-par across three rounds.
His week got off to the worst possible start on day one, as he shot a dismal 11-over 82 on Friday which included a sextuple bogey 10 on the par four 18th. Things did not get much better for the American as he added an eight-over-par 77 on day two.
And he mirrored this in Sunday's final round, shooting a second-successive 77 to leave him 23-over for the week. As is the luxury of the Saudi-funded breakaway circuit though, Kim still managed to come away with a hefty week's earnings.
In contrast, Spanish star Jorge Campillo recorded an impressive fourth-place finish at the Hero Indian Open whilst competing on of LIV's rival circuits in the DP World Tour. Despite this, Campillo remarkably earned less than the Saudi's rock-bottom man Kim.
At the other end of the leaderboard, Charles Howell III was the man to come away with LIV Golf's first title of the season, seeing off Peter Uihlein by four shots after shooting 16-under across the three rounds. His victory ensured Howell came away with £3.3million in tournament winnings.
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His earnings did not stop there though, as the American's individual victory also helped his Crushers teammates secure the team title in Mexico. This saw Howell, captain Bryson DeChambeau, Paul Casey and Anirban Lahiri take home another £625,000 after sharing the £2.5 million team winnings.
The win was Howell's first in four years, and revealed afterwards feared he would never win again - let alone taking nearly £4million home in the process. He said: "Obviously, I don’t think you ever see a win coming,” said the 43-year-old Howell. “I’ve played in a lot of golf tournaments in my life, and I haven’t won a lot of them, and you have the doubts and the feelings, will you ever win again? To do it against this competition with these guys standing up here is more than I could ever dream of. I’m extremely thankful.”
