Branden Grace Player Profile

SOUTH AFRICA’S Branden Grace won the second LIV Golf Invitational Series in Portland, pocketing a massive $4,375,000 in the process.

It came as the organisers announced that England’s Paul Casey has become the latest forty-something to sign up for the breakaway tour. Casey, who has 18 PGA and DP World Tour wins, has not played a tournament since March and a lingering back injury forced him out of last month's US Open.

It means that 22 of the world's top 100 players have now left the PGA and DP World Tours.

Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed finished four shots adrift on nine-under par, with Louis Oosthuizen in solo fifth on seven-under par.

Grace won $4 million for individual honours in Portland, and an additional $375,000 for finishing second in the team event. 

The South African, who finished tied third in the inaugural LIV Golf event at Centurion, has now pocketed $6.4 million in the first two LIV Golf events.

“I played flawless golf, played really, really well when I needed to do something special and came up and managed to pull it out," said Grace, who becomes the second South African to win a LIV Golf event after Charl Schwartzel's Centurion win last month.

"But just what a great day, it was amazing to come here, this new format, this new everything is amazing and everybody here is having a blast."

Of the selected others, Bryson DeChambeau finished 10th on 2-under par in his LIV Golf debut, while Phil Mickelson endured another week to forget on 10-over par alongside Ian Poulter. Only 14 of the 48-man field finished the tournament under par. 

Who is Branden Grace?

Grace was born in Pretoria in May 1988. In 2012, he became the first player in the history of the European Tour to win his first four titles in the same year. His victory at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship included a round of 60 at Kingsbarns and he finished the season in third place on the Order of Merit. And on 22 July 2017, he became the first man to record a sub-63 score in a major when he shot a 62 in The Open at Birkdale. He has won twice on the PGA Tour, nine times on the DP World Tour and six times on the Sunshine Tour. He has played in the Presidents Cup on three occasions.

His best individual performance on the PGA Tour this season was a tied seventh at the Zozo Championship. He averages 296.3 yards from the tee and hits 60.16% of fairways, averaging 3.40 birdies per round. Grace hits 65.94% of greens in regulation and averages 29.35 putts per round. He is ranked 128th in the world and has quit his membership of the PGA Tour.