Henrik Stenson reacts after sinking a putt on the 18th hole and winning the individual competition of the Bedminster Invitational LIV Golf tournament in Bedminster, N.J., on Sunday. Seth Wenig/Associated Press
BEDMINSTER, N.J. — Henrik Stenson’s decision that cost him the European Ryder Cup captaincy paid large and immediate dividends Sunday when he won the LIV Golf Invitational at Bedminster and picked up more than $4 million for three days’ work.
Staked to a three-shot lead going into the third and final round at Trump National, Stenson opened with a 20-foot birdie putt and never led anyone closer than two shots the rest of the way.
He closed with a 2-under 69 for a two-shot victory over Matthew Wolf (64) and Dustin Johnson, who birdied the last hole for a 68.
Stenson, five years removed from beating a field of more than 20 players, picked up $4 million for winning and an additional $375,000 for his team finishing second.
The big payoff — not including a signing bonus reported to be about $50 million — comes less than two weeks after he 46-year-old Swede decided to join the Saudi-funded LIV Golf series.
Stenson had pledged full support to the European Tour when he became Ryder Cup captain and March, and the tour stripped him of the job four months later when he changed his mind.
“I guess we can agree I played like a captain,” Stenson said on the LIV Golf telecast.
He finished at 11-under 202.
Asked by the LIV-paid broadcaster if he felt validated by the win, Stenson chose not to engage and replied, “It’s been a good first week.”
“It’s been a busy 10 days. I’m extremely proud I managed to focus as well as I did,” he said.
Carlos Ortiz of Mexico (68) finished fourth, while Patrick Reed (69) was fifth.
Phil Mickelson shot an even-par 71, only the second time in nine rounds of LIV Golf that Mickelson has shot par or better. He finished 35th.
The LIV Golf Invitational is off for a month during the FedEx Cup playoffs on the PGA Tour, returning over Labor Day weekend about an hour west of Boston, and then two weeks later plays in the Chicago suburbs.
PGA: Tony Finau ran away with the Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club to become the first PGA Tour player in three years to win consecutive regular-season events.
Finau closed with a 5-under 67 for a five-shot victory and a tournament-record 26-under 262 total. Taylor Pendrith (72), Patrick Cantlay (66) and rookie of the year front-runner Cameron Young (68) tied for second.
Finau coasted to his fourth career victory, a third title in 11-plus months. He was the 3M Open winner last week in Minnesota, where he rallied from five strokes back to win by three. Brendon Todd was the last to win two straight in the regular season, doing it in 2019.
LPGA: Ayaka Furue of Japan ran off six straight birdies in the middle of her round and rallied from a four-shot deficit with a 10-under 62 to win the Women’s Scottish Open at Irvine, Scotland, for her first LPGA Tour title.
A seven-time winner on the Japan LPGA – once as an amateur – Furue became the second rookie to win on the LPGA Tour this year, and she did it in style at Dundonald Links.
Starting the final round four shots behind Celine Boutier of France, the 22-year-old finished the front nine with four straight birdies and added two more to start the back nine. She never let up, playing bogey-free to win by three.
Boutier was still in good shape until making three bogeys on the back nine for a 69.
Furue finished at 21-under 267 and won $300,000, along with valuable momentum going into the final major of the year next week in the Women’s British Open at Muirfield.
EUROPEAN TOUR: American Sean Crocker held off a spirited challenge from Eddie Pepperell to claim his first European tour title with a wire-to-wire victory in the Hero Open at St. Andrews, Scotland.
Crocker carded a final-round 68 at Fairmont St Andrews to finish 22-under par and a shot ahead of Pepperell, who had piled on the pressure with a closing 65.
“It’s pretty cool but man, winning a golf tournament is not easy and Eddie did not make that easy for me either,” Crocker told Sky Sports after crucial par saves on the last two holes sealed the win.
Asked how he felt standing over a four-foot putt to win on the 18th, Crocker – who missed nine cuts in a row earlier this season – added: “Nervous as hell.
“I’ve felt pressure like that before but it’s my first pro tournament (win) so that putt looked like it was 20 feet and that hole looked like it was half an inch wide, but right off the face I knew it was a well-struck putt and as I looked up and saw it drop I was just telling myself `Don’t start crying’.”
Crocker, who was born in Zimbabwe and raised in California, lost his two-shot overnight lead early in the final round as Pepperell and Denmark’s Oliver Hundeboll both made flying starts, but a birdie on the sixth and three more in four holes from the 10th restored his advantage before Pepperell’s birdie on the 18th set up a nervous finish.
Pepperell reached a ranking of 32nd following the second of his two wins in 2018, but has struggled in recent seasons and was pleased with his first top-five finish in three years.
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