Johnson lifts the Liv Tulsa Trophy on the eve of the PGA Championship

Two-time major champion Dustin Johnson claimed his second title at LIV Golf on Sunday, edging out Cameron Smith and Branden Grace in a playoff at Cedar Ridge Country Club near Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Johnson birdied his final hole in regulation to enter the playoff, then birdied out a quadruple par on the 18th with a putt from the green.

South AfricaGrace had finished first in the playoff, also from the sidelines, narrowly missing out.

Smith, the reigning British Open champion, was closest to the hole, but his shot was never quite on the right track.

Johnson took home the top prize of $4 million out of a $25 million purse and joined Talor Gooch – winner of the previous two events – and Brooks Koepka as two-time winners of the Saudi-backed breakaway circuit’s first 14 events.

The former world number one won his first title at LIV in Boston last year.

Atop the leaderboard in the third and final round, Johnson bogeyed a triple bogey on the 10th hole to score a three-under 67 to join Grace and Smith at 17-under.

“Obviously after I’d been seven for 10 – all I could do was make a mistake on the hole – but to hit the birdie 18 twice in a row, I’m really happy about that,” Johnson said.

Smith, the owner of five full-backs and nine other bowlers, had a bogey-free and nine-under-par 61, while Grace – who shot a first-innings 61 – finished with five-under-65.

Grace helped the South African Stingers, captained by Louis Oosthuizen, capture the team title with a total of 40-under-par.

The next LIV tournament is at Trump National in Washington in two weeks. But next week, Johnson and Smith will be among the 18 LIV rebels taking on the second major race of the season, the PGA Championship at Oak Hill in Rochester, New York.

LIV funded by Kingdom of Saudi ArabiaThe PIF, the sports division last year by luring top stars from the US PGA Tour and DP World Tour on lucrative contracts.

Amid the intensity, major tournament organizers have maintained the qualification standards allowing LIV golfers to compete, paving the way for them to take on loyalists including Spanish Masters champion John Rahm and world number two Scotty Scheffler in Oak Hill.

“I’m playing really well,” said Johnson. “I got a lot of momentum going into the next week.”

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