South African Oliver Bekker\u2019s bid to secure a wildcard place on the 2026 LIV Golf League ended in disappointment on Sunday.<\/p>\n
A closing-round 72 saw him finish outside the top three at LIV Golf Promotions in Florida.<\/p>\n
Bekker, who began the final round firmly in contention after carding a 66 on Saturday, slipped back during the decisive 18 holes at Black Diamond Ranch to finish in a tie for eighth at two under par. Only the top three finishers earned guaranteed wildcard status for the 2026 season.<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s Richard T Lee delivered a dominant performance to claim top honours, firing a closing five-under 65 to finish five shots clear on 11 under. Sweden\u2019s Bjorn Hellgren surged with a final-round 64 to take second place, while American Anthony Kim held on to secure the third and final wildcard spot.<\/p>\n
Bekker, part of LIV Golf\u2019s inaugural field in London in 2022, remained in the mix deep into the final day but was unable to match the pace set by those ahead of him. A tougher final round ultimately proved costly as the field battled for career-changing opportunities.<\/p>\n
Lee\u2019s victory marked a historic moment, with the 35-year-old becoming the first Canadian to earn a place on LIV Golf. Hellgren\u2019s late charge capped an impressive run of form following his recent Saudi Open victory, while Kim completed an inspirational comeback by earning a third season as a LIV Golf wildcard player.<\/p>\n
Despite missing out on a place in the 2026 LIV Golf League, Bekker\u2019s tie-eighth finish did secure him exemption into the Asian Tour\u2019s International Series, offering further competitive opportunities in the coming season.<\/p>\n
The final result underlined the fine margins at play in the promotions shootout, with Bekker left to reflect on what might have been after putting himself in contention over the first three days.<\/p>\n
Final leaderboard
The top three players after Sunday\u2019s final round of the 36-hole weekend shootout at Black Diamond Ranch claimed the three available LIV Golf wild-card spots for 2026. The top 10 players and ties earned exemption into The International Series on the Asian Tour.<\/p>\n
1. Richard T Lee, Canada \u2013 64-65 (129\/-11)
2. Bjorn Hellegren, Sweden \u2013 70-64 (134\/-6)
3. Anthony Kim, USA \u2013 66-69 (135\/-5)
T4. Lucas Bjerregaard, Denmark \u2013 67-70 (137\/-3)
T4. Sarit Suwannarut, Thailand \u2013 69-68 (137\/-3)
T4. Kieran Vincent, Zimbabwe \u2013 70-67 (137\/-3)
T4. Jeunghun Wang, South Korea \u2013 69-68 (137\/-3)
T8. Oliver Bekker, South Africa \u2013 66-72 (138\/-2)
T8. Cory Crawford, Australia \u2013 71-67 (138\/-2)
T8. Jazz Janewattananond, Thailand \u2013 66-72 (138\/-2)
T8. Matt Jones, Australia \u2013 70-68 (138\/-2)
T8. Takanori Konishi, Japan \u2013 69-69 (138\/-2)
T8. Christopher Wood, Australia \u2013 71-67 (138\/-2)
14. Rattanon Wannasrichan, Thailand \u2013 70-69 (139\/-1)
15. Joe Pagdin, England \u2013 69-71 (140\/E)
T16. Sadom Kaewkanjana, Thailand \u2013 73-69 (142\/+2)
T16. Julian Perico, Peru \u2013 70-72 (142\/+2)
T16. Travis Smyth, Australia \u2013 71-71 (142\/+2)
T16. Miguel Tabuena, Philippines \u2013 72-70 (142\/+2)
20. Jose Islas, Mexico \u2013 72-72 (144\/+4)
21. Max Kennedy, Ireland \u2013 69-76 (145\/+5)
22. Danthai Boonma, Thailand \u2013 76-77 (153\/+13)<\/p>\n
Photo: Mike Stobe\/LIV Golf<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South African Oliver Bekker\u2019s bid to secure a wildcard place on the 2026 LIV Golf League ended in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-407903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}