In the end, Howell’s 16 under score was almost enough to beat the 4Aces by himself. Casey, who didn’t look at a leaderboard until he reached the final green, was shocked to see the wide margin in which his team was leading. He then asked his caddie about Howell. The response: “He’s crushing it.”
Added Lahiri: “There will be days like this where you kind of ride the hot round, and Charles pulled it through for us.”
Howell had started the final round one stroke off the lead, but while he was producing birdies, the co-leaders kept finding trouble. Uihlein’s errant approach shot at the third hole led to bogey, although he bounced back with a birdie and eagle. Gooch had two bogeys on the front, and then struggled down the stretch. When Uihlein triple-bogeyed the 12th, the tournament was essentially in Howell’s hands.
“He won it on the front,” Uihlein said. “He did a heck of a job. … There wasn’t any pressure on him, and he did exactly what he needed to do, and he executed. He’s a worthy champion.”
Howell knows how El Camaleon can offer plenty of birdies and plenty of trouble. His experience paid off this week.
“I’ve seen a lot of crazy things happen on every hole out here,” Howell said. “… On the 12th tee today, we had our group of three hit seven tee balls off that tee. Talor hit three drives and Peter hit three drives. I mean, that shows you how crazy it is.”
There was nothing crazy for Howell and the Crushers, though, except for their jubilant champagne celebration on the podium. They now lead the team standings going into the LIV Golf League’s next event, LIV Golf Tucson on March 17-19.
Top 5 Leaderboard
1. CRUSHERS GC (-26): Charles Howell III 63, Bryson DeChambeau 68, Paul Casey 70 (Rd3: 12 under)
2. 4ACES GC (-17): Pat Perez 66, Peter Uihlein 68, Patrick Reed 74 (Rd3: 5 under)
3. TORQUE GC (-13): Joaquin Niemann 68, Sebastian Munoz 68, Mito Pereira 68 (Rd3: 9 under)
4. STINGER GC (-12): Branden Grace 67, Charl Schwartzel 69, Dean Burmester 70 (Rd3: 7 under)
5. RIPPER GC (-12): Cameron Smith 67, Matt Jones 68, Marc Leishman 72 (Rd3: 6 under)