Staff WriterThere are sweat-soaked fairways and then there’s Texas in June. LIV Golf Dallas, presented by Aramco, didn’t just serve up triple-digit heat—it delivered a four-man playoff, a hometown hero finally breaking his duck, and a team that crushed the field like a beer can on a tailgate.
At Maridoe Golf Club in Carrollton, where the rough bites and the wind doesn’t whisper—it snarls—Crushers GC captain Bryson DeChambeau watched his squad obliterate the leaderboard for their third straight win, while Patrick Reed clawed his way to a long-overdue first individual LIV Golf title.
This wasn’t just a tournament—it was a Lone Star showdown with all the drama of a Friday night lights finish. And LIV Golf Dallas had it all.
DeChambeau’s Dallas Dream
Let’s start with the team event, where the Crushers didn’t just win, they delivered an 11-shot blitzkrieg—the largest team margin of victory this season.
It marked their league-best eighth regular-season title (ninth overall if you’re counting last year’s championship, and let’s be honest, Bryson definitely is).
DeChambeau, a local lad and two-time U.S. Open champion, poured his heart into promoting the event. The payoff? Over 50,000 fans across three days, with Saturday alone drawing a record-setting 20,000-plus. That’s not just good turnout—that’s tailgate-and-fireworks-level LIV fever.
“Dallas showed up, and this is what I expected. This is what I thought. This is what I thought was possible,” DeChambeau said after carding a 68 on Sunday to finish T9 individually. “Our team showed up. I’ve just got to say I’m super thankful to Dallas and super thankful for the team for playing as well as they did.”
Reed’s Redemption
But the real heart-thumper of LIV Golf Dallas came from Houston native Patrick Reed, who finally found his moment in the sun—or rather, beneath a 16½-foot birdie putt on the 18th.
That stroke, struck with his daughter’s putter (adorably etched with her name “Windsor-Wells”), won him a four-man playoff for his first individual title on LIV, and his first pro victory in Texas. Ever.
“I don’t like hearing those numbers, that it took me 41 times just to win out here,” Reed admitted. “It took too long, I felt like, but to check two things off and win for the first time on LIV and also doing it in my home state means a lot.”
It wasn’t a clean ride. Reed, who began Sunday with a three-shot lead, ballooned to five strokes clear after his playing partners Paul Casey and Abraham Ancer doubled the opening hole. But then came the wobble—five bogeys in seven holes had him reeling by the turn, overtaken by Tyrrell Hatton.
And yet, Reed never quite disappeared. He parred his entire back nine, steadying the ship with a crucial up-and-down from 150 yards on the 12th, grinding his way to a scrappy 3-over 75 that left him tied at 6-under with Casey, Louis Oosthuizen, and Jinichiro Kozuma.
Sudden Death, Texan Style
In the playoff, Oosthuizen rinsed his tee shot, Casey bunkered his approach, and Kozuma missed the green. Reed, from the fairway rough, flagged it. Then came the magic moment—daughter’s putter in hand, the read true, the roll pure.
“I looked down and I said, ‘Come on honey, we’ve got to make one,’” said Reed. “For that putt to go in – it meant a lot.”
Crushers: Built Different
Back to the team game: DeChambeau’s Crushers—rounded out by Anirban Lahiri, Charles Howell III, and Casey—were ruthless. All four finished in the top 11. Lahiri caught fire with three birdies on the bounce early. Howell hung around all week. And even Casey, gutted from losing the playoff, saw the bigger picture.
“Losing in a playoff, I’m always a bit pissed off usually,” Casey said. “That’s understandable. But then you kind of see the joy on these guys’ faces … I’m sitting here smiling because I know what it means for Bryson, the effort that he’s put into the week. For us, this was like a little Crushers home game.”
It showed. LIV Golf Dallas proved to be a crowning moment for a team playing with swagger and unity. The Crushers now sit atop the team standings, and after this kind of display, who’s betting against them to stay there?
As for Reed, well, he finally got his Texas toast.
And in true Lone Star fashion, he made damn sure it was buttered on both sides.
