Lucas Herbert's hopes of a first LIV Golf triumph have crashed in Singapore while Joaquin Niemann continued his sizzling form off the back of his triumph in Adelaide with a second triumph in three tournaments.
It proved a bad day for Australia's Ripper GC contingent at the Sentosa Golf Club on Sunday, with their in-form spearhead Herbert, tied for third going into the final round, failing to launch his expected challenge as he ended up slumping to a three-over par 74 finish.
The 29-year-old from Bendigo ended up tied for 14th at five under, while Niemann was playing in a league of his own, running out a five-shot winner over the field after recording a flawless final six-under 65, the only round all day that didn't feature a bogey.
The nearest challenger to the brilliant 26-year-old Chilean was last year's Singapore winner Brooks Koepka, who also equalled Niemann's day's best of 65.
Niemann moves into the lead in the Saudi-based tour's individual points standings, which will earn him exemption into the US Open if he can maintain the position for the next couple of months.
"Today was one of those days," said Niemann, who won by three shots in the LIV Golf Adelaide event a month ago. "Everything went my way."
Things have been going Niemann's way for a while. This week, he ended up on 17-under 196 after his three rounds over the challenging 7420-yard Serapong course.
Victory was assured after he recorded five birdies on the front nine, which he reckoned settled him for the rest of the round en route to his fourth LIV crown.
"Yeah, I was a little bit nervous, you're always nervous before a round about what's going to happen," he said.
"It really kind of freed me up for the rest of the round, starting with a birdie on the first hole, and then being able to birdie the third and the fourth. Because of that start, I was able to be really, really free for the whole round."
For Herbert, though, it was downhill most of the way with six bogeys peppering his round.
His Ripper GC team's fortunes were similar as not one of the Cameron Smith-led quartet, the tour champions last year, could finish with an under-par flourish.
Smith shot a 72 to finish at four under, tied for 19th, Matt Jones had a 71 to end up at level par (tied-32nd) and Marc Leishman was nine over after a 72, tied for 51st.
Ripper GC finished 10th in the 13-team rankings, while Sergio Garcia's Fireballs GC won their third consecutive tournament, after starting eight shots behind at the start of the day, even though their Spanish captain had been suffering from bronchitis.
