Wife's 90K Run Inspires Dean Burmester Outplay Jon Rahm at LIV Golf Chicago
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
South Africa's Dean Burmester delivered one of the most stirring finishes of the LIV Golf season, clinching the Chicago title and a $4 million payday from the $25 million purse on Sunday.
His victory came after a dramatic three-man playoff against Jon Rahm and Josele Ballester, capped by a six-foot birdie putt at Bolingbrook Golf Club.
The 36-year-old pro began the final round with a two-shot lead but stumbled early with three consecutive bogeys. His even-par 71 brought him to 9-under for the tournament, matched by Rahm and Ballester after both birdied the 18th in regulation.
On the playoff hole, Rahm and Ballester missed birdie attempts from 12 feet. But the South African professional rolled in his putt perfectly and pumped his fist in triumph.
DEAN BURMESTER WINS IN CHICAGO 🏆🍾
He takes his second LIV Golf Individual Title 💪#LIVGolfChicago @stingergc_ pic.twitter.com/nuGGG092UJ — LIV Golf (@livgolf_league) August 10, 2025
"This has been emotional," Burmester expressed after his win during Sunday's post-round conference. "Since kind of before Virginia, I've been going through a bit of a rough time, personal stuff, and I've just been grinding and trying to get better."
The source of his strength? His wife, Melissa Burmester.
During the week of LIV Golf West Virginia in June, Melissa completed an ultra-marathon of 90 kilometers in nine and a half hours. Burmester watched her finish from his phone and found the exact inspiration he needed on Sunday.
"That Sunday I was on my phone watching her, and that truly gave me an inspiration to kind of -- if she can do that, she can run 90 whatever kilometers in a day, nine and a half hours or whatever it was, then I can do anything."
He added later during the press conference, "For her to achieve that really kind of changed my life, and that drove me to want to do the same for them, for her and my kids. That's what today (Sunday) was about, because today was not easy."
BOLINGBROOK, ILLINOIS - AUGUST 10: Dean Burmester of Stinger GC (R) holds the individual trophy and celebrates with his caddie Jason Reynolds on stage on day three of LIV Golf Chicago at Bolingbrook Golf Club...
BOLINGBROOK, ILLINOIS - AUGUST 10: Dean Burmester of Stinger GC (R) holds the individual trophy and celebrates with his caddie Jason Reynolds on stage on day three of LIV Golf Chicago at Bolingbrook Golf Club on August 10, 2025 in Bolingbrook, Illinois. (Photo by) More
Getty Images
Burmester and Melissa met in South Africa in the early 2010s and have been married since 2014. Now they are a family of four having two children.
The LIV golf pro often credits their partnership for grounding his career through its highs and lows. Melissa, being a dedicated athlete herself, has supported Burmester through his transition from the DP World Tour to LIV Golf.
Rahm carded a final-round 69 but couldn't convert in the playoff. His runner-up finish earned him $1.875 million and narrowed the gap in the individual standings, where he now trails Joaquin Niemann by just 12.27 points. That said, Niemann, who finished tied for 17th at 2-under, still remains the season-long leader.
Burmester's win also helped his team, Stinger GC, secure the team title in a separate playoff against Torque GC.
More Golf: FedEx St. Jude Championship 2025: $20M Purse Breakdown as Justin Rose Wins
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
Jordon Hudson and Bill Belichick's ex, Linda Holliday, attend same Nantucket party months after holiday clash
It seems the ice has thawed in Nantucket. Jordon Hudson and Linda Holliday were spotted at the same Massachusetts fundraiser on Saturday, roughly eight months after Bill Belichick's current gal pal and his ex-girlfriend, respectively, clashed at a holiday affair. TMZ reported Monday that 'no issues were seen by partygoers' at the Boston Pops on Nantucket soiree, which is 'believed to be [Hudson and Holliday's] first public run-in' since the Nantucket Dreamland encounter last December, when Holliday confronted Hudson. 5 Bill Belichick and girlfriend Jordon Hudson in February 2025. Getty Images 5 Linda Holliday, who previously dated Bill Belichick, was at a fundraiser in Nantucket over the weekend that Jordon Hudson also attended. Icon Sportswire via Getty Images Holliday — who split from Belichick, 73, in 2023 after 16 years of dating — told organizers at the December 2024 gathering she felt Hudson's 'presence was inappropriate, since the event was widely advertised as a party headlined by her daughters,' and asked a staffer to 'remove Ms. Hudson from the premises,' according to an incident report obtained by TMZ in May. Holliday and two others confronted Hudson on the dance floor, and when a staffer approached Hudson about whether 'she thought it was a good idea to be there,' the former college cheerleader defended herself, stating she hadn't done anything wrong. 5 Linda Holliday and Bill Belichick dated for 16 years before their breakup was reported in 2023. Getty Images for Churchill Downs However, the fireworks didn't stop there as Hudson claimed to the event staffer that her friend, former Miss Massachusetts USA Melissa Sapini, was 'seemingly threatened by Ms. Holliday, saying that if Ms. Sapini valued her current title, she should think twice about who her friends are and that she, Ms. Holliday, had many powerful friends in the pageant organization,' per the incident report. Sapini joined Hudson for Saturday's festivities. 5 Jordon Hudson with close friend Melissa Sapini. jordon/Instagram Hudson shot to immediate fame last June when she and Belichick went public with their relationship. Controversies have followed the couple in the months since, including a CBS interview debacle in April when Hudson punted a question about how she and Belichick met. Recently, the former Miss Maine USA contestant made headlines for cold-calling podcaster Charlotte Wilder, who has discussed her romance with Belichick on 'The Sports Gossip Show' with Madeline Hill, and later gave her take on the matter. 5 Controversies have followed Bill Belichick and Jordon Hudson since the couple went public with their romance in 2024. Instagram/@jordon_isabella Belichick, an eight-time Super Bowl-winning NFL coach, is gearing up for his first season in the college ranks as UNC's football coach. The Tar Heels host TCU in their season opener on Sept. 1.
New York Post
2 hours ago
- New York Post
Basketball pillar Rucker Park will forever have a long legacy through NBA stars
Marvin 'Hammer' Stevens surveys the court at Rucker Park from the shade of a tent by the baseline, shaking his head at the game of streetball before him. A player misses a layup, then grabs his own rebound and misses again. The bleachers are about half full on this warm summer evening. 'When we played, this was all different,' Stevens says, looking around. 'This is nothing compared to our games. No comparison.' That's not exactly a groundbreaking declaration. These days, Rucker mostly hosts summer youth leagues and local streetball tournaments. Fifty years ago, when Stevens played there, it was the summertime center of the basketball universe. 7 NBA draft prospects Victor Wembanyama and Bilal Coulibaly visit Rucker Park during 2023 NBA Draft week on June 21st, 2023. NBAE via Getty Images The legendary venue at 155th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard shaped the way basketball is played as we know it, according to many of the icons who passed through — including Julius 'Dr. J' Erving, one of the greatest to ever grace the Rucker courts. 'I would think Rucker had a great influence on the NBA,' Erving, 75, told The Post. 'Up-tempo style. Even defensively, there were isolations that you had to step up. You had to man up, or get booed. It was action-reaction, which is a fun style for fans.' In its golden era, the Rucker Pro League featured a mix of pro superstars and playground legends. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then Lew Alcindor), Wilt Chamberlain and Willis Reed made appearances in the 1960s, before Erving and Nate 'Tiny' Archibald shared the court with local icons like Pee Wee Kirkland, Joe 'The Destroyer' Hammond and Stevens in the '70s. When Dr. J first played at the venue in 1971, he had just finished his second and final season at UMass, where college basketball regulations made it illegal to dunk, and impossible for Erving to put his athleticism on full display. 7 Julius 'Dr. J' Erving at Rucker Park Rucker Pro Legends The Rucker league provided the opposite experience. Fans waited in hourslong lines to see players like Erving dunk, and they'd boo if a player passed up a slam for a layup on a fast break. Erving thinks the environment helped him develop into the player basketball fans came to revere. 'It was like the chains coming off,' Erving, who played at Rucker for five summers, said. 'OK, not worried about what the coach has to say. We're not worried about what, really, the officials have to say, because they're on our team now.' Dr. J played for the Westsiders, a team coached by longtime basketball columnist Peter Vecsey, alongside point guard Roland 'Fatty' Taylor, a quick, shifty point guard who loved to run the floor. 'He really could push the ball,' Erving said. 'So getting used to that, my college experience wasn't filled with that. I don't think I remember catching the ball at full speed the way I was able to at the Rucker.' 7 Michael Jordan looks on as young athletes practice during the World Basketball Festival at Rucker Park on August 13, 2010 in New York City. Getty Images for Nike Erving took that style to the ABA when he joined the Virginia Squires in 1971, and he helped bring a run-and-gun brand of hoops to the NBA when he joined the 76ers after the 1976 NBA-ABA merger. 'He became a franchise player in the NBA from playing at Rucker,' said Kirkland, who had several highly anticipated battles with Dr. J in Harlem in the early '70s. 'Because just as much as he brought to people there, that's what they were bringing to him.' Vecsey, then a young, ambitious sportswriter, deserves much of the credit for making it happen. Vecsey became infatuated with the Rucker after reading Pete Axthelm's 1970 book 'The City Game,' which covered the title-winning 1969-70 Knicks, but also the Rucker tournament and the city's culture of playground basketball. He wanted in. A former Hofstra basketball player, Vecsey convinced co-commissioners Bob McCullough and Freddie Crawford to let him start a team, and he persuaded Nets owner Roy Boe to put up $300 for the squad before the summer of 1971. Vecsey then met with Erving and his best friend, Dave Brownbill, at Rucker to see if the then-21-year-old wanted to play on his team, which would become the Westsiders. 7 Rucker Park legends Joe Hammond, left, and Pee Wee Kirkland, right, are seen during a preview of the upcoming playoffs of the Entertainer Basketball Classic, Monday, Aug. 11, 2003, at the NBA store in New York. Rucker Park is the legendary home to New York's great street ball tournament. AP Photo 'How much are we going to get paid?' Erving asked Vecsey, who replied that as far as he knew, nobody would be getting a penny. After taking a walk around the park to discuss, Brownbill and Erving told Vecsey: 'OK. Let's go.' Almost instantly, Erving's presence brought the Rucker atmosphere to a new level. Fans did anything and everything to catch a glimpse. Kids crawled along tree branches. Schoolboys dangled off the roof of the neighboring elementary school and perched on top of the fence lining the court. Residents of the nearby Polo Grounds Towers watched from windows. The unlucky ones? They peered down from the elevated portion of 155th Street. 7 Shaquille O'Neal speaks with reporters while guest coaching Team MMG at Rucker Park on July 9, 2013. Getty Images 'Other than Madison Square Garden,' Erving said, 'there didn't seem to be any more significant a place to play.' Erving would use extra caution to navigate the court, because the first few rows of seating often bled onto the floor itself. 'The court was reduced in size, even in the feel of the size of the court, because people were so close to you,' Erving said. 'That was a real live experience that I think made a difference in terms of the energy level, action, reaction.' To replicate that experience today would be almost impossible. For one, the then-small oak trees surrounding the court now tower over the park, blocking the view from the elementary school and the 155th Street overpass. And although Kobe Bryant (2002) and Kevin Durant (2011) played in one-off pickup games at Rucker, NBA players are far more hesitant to play on pavement because of the potential for injury. 7 Kevin Durant celebrates after dunking during EBC Basketball game against Sean Bell Allstars, at Rucker Park (155th Street), August 1st, 2011. Robert Cole Still, the spirit of the place remains. On a recent summer evening, a live DJ spun remixes of Drake and Lil Wayne songs at a game of organized streetball, with an on-court emcee, Larry King Agee, acting as a hybrid of a play-by-play announcer and a comedian. 'Shoutout to all the beautiful people out here tonight,' Agee exclaimed into the mic before tipoff. 'And if you're ugly, we appreciate you too.' 7 Kobe Bryant attends the World Basketball Festival at Rucker Park on August 14, 2010 in New York City. Getty Images for Nike That quip had Maurice Portis, a Bronx resident, chuckling from the stands. He's a personal trainer who visited Harlem to watch his friend play, and to scout things out before making his Rucker debut in a few weeks. Like everyone else in attendance, he's well aware of the history. 'It's probably not like it used to be,' Portis said, 'but when you come in here and you put on that uniform, it's something to be proud of.'
Newsweek
3 hours ago
- Newsweek
Phillies' Zack Wheeler Breaks Silence on Velocity Drop After Surprise Injury
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The Philadelphia Phillies' starting rotation has been among the best in baseball this season, and Zack Wheeler is leading the way. Wheeler's last start was pushed back, but he was able to start on Sunday against the Texas Rangers. His start was pushed back due to shoulder discomfort, and Wheeler noted that he had been dealing with it for "a while," according to Paul Casella. Wheeler's fastest pitch on Sunday, a four-seam fastball, clocked in at 95.5 mph, per Baseball Savant. His average velocity on that pitch this season is 96.1 mph. Wheeler spoke on the drop in velocity after the game. ARLINGTON, TX - AUGUST 10: Zack Wheeler #45 of the Philadelphia Phillies pitches against the Texas Rangers during the second inning at Globe Life Field on August 10, 2025 in Arlington, Texas. ARLINGTON, TX - AUGUST 10: Zack Wheeler #45 of the Philadelphia Phillies pitches against the Texas Rangers during the second inning at Globe Life Field on August 10, 2025 in Arlington, Texas."I'm not concerned," Wheeler said, per The Athletic's Charlotte Varnes. "I've pitched at that velo before. It will come back." Wheeler has a 2.68 ERA in 23 starts this year. He also has a league-leading 189 strikeouts, and if his injury is something that is going to linger, it could directly affect the Phillies' World Series dreams. However, manager Rob Thomson also did not express too much concern. "I'm not concerned," Thomson said, per Varnes. "They're working at some stuff, and he just looks a little bit out of sync. The velocity's not there, but his secondary stuff was good. He got a lot of whiffs." Wheeler finished the game with seven strikeouts, three walks and allowed just two earned runs. However, it was just the fifth time all season he had issued more than two walks, and it was tied for his shortest outing of the year. More MLB: Mets' Carlos Mendoza Offers 6-Word Solution to Team's Slump
