Finland’s Kalle Samooja, Zimbabwe’s Kieran Vincent and Japan’s Jinichiro Kozuma all earned a spot on next year’s LIV Golf League after claiming the top three places at the inaugural LIV Golf Promotions event held in Abu Dhabi Golf Club in the UAE.
Held over three days and 72 holes, with cuts made after rounds one and two, the top 20 players from an original field of 73 took part in a 36-hole shoot out on Sunday, where they were competing for just three places on the 2024 LIV Golf League.
Samooja produced the lowest score of the final day, with the 35-year-old Finn shooting scores of 65 and 71 to finish at 8 under, and win the tournament outright and collect the $200,000 first prize.
Vincent and Kozuma each shot 7 under on the day to make a three-man playoff for the final two places that also included England’s Laurie Canter. After all three players made pars on the first play-off hole, Vincent birdied the second and Kozuma parred it to join Samooja as LIV Golf’s newest members. Canter found the water with his second shot and the resulting bogey saw him miss out on returning to the league in which he has played 19 events over the last two seasons.
“Once I came here, I knew this was the only thing I wanted to achieve,” said Samooja. “It’s a big step forward in my career.”
Vincent, who joins older brother Scott as a LIV Golf member, said: “Obviously watching my brother the whole year, seeing how life-changing it can be, I just hope that this propels my career to a whole new level.”
Kozuma, who made three starts during the 2022 LIV Golf Invitational Series, said: “I wanted to come back again for sure, and for it to be real now, it’s like a dream.”
For all the scores from LIV Golf Promotions, click here.