First place champion Captain Jon Rahm of Legion XIII celebrates with the trophy with his caddie, Adam Hayes, next to second place finisher, Captain Joaquín Niemann of Torque GC and third place finisher, Captain Cameron Smith of Ripper GC during the trophy ceremony after the final round of LIV Golf United Kingdom by JCB
(Photo by Matthew Harris/LIV Golf)
BY LIV GOLF STAFF
ROCESTER, England – Prior to leaving for a four-week stretch of tournaments in Europe, Jon Rahm was told by his wife Kelley that their oldest child, Kepa, had a request.
Please bring home a trophy.
After a tie for 10th at LIV Golf Andalucía and a tie for 7th at last week’s Open Championship, Rahm fulfilled his son’s request at LIV Golf UK by JCB on Sunday.
In fact, the 29-year-old Spanish star earned two trophies, claiming his first LIV Golf individual title while also leading Legion XIII to its fourth team victory of the season.
“Just knowing I’m bringing a trophy home for them, it feels good to see that it’s coming home,” said Rahm, who has one more tournament left next week at the Olympics in his busy summer schedule.
It was a victory that had been eagerly anticipated since the two-time major winner joined the league last December. But it was also a bittersweet win as it came at the expense of his close friend and Legion XIII teammate Tyrrell Hatton.
Rahm, playing in the group ahead of Hatton, finished off a final-round 4-under 67 that left him at 13 under. Hatton was also at 13 under as he played the 18th hole. The Englishman, playing in front of his home crowd, found the green in two, and then did well to knock his 76-foot birdie putt to 5 feet.
But with a chance to force a playoff against his captain, Hatton missed the par putt, leaving a muted celebration for the entire team.
“Obviously, you always want to win,” said Rahm, victorious for the first time since the 2023 Masters. “Selfishly you always want to get that done. But you don’t want to see a teammate and a good friend missing a putt for that to happen for me.
“It’s a bit of an unusual situation that I don’t think any of us are used to.”
Said Hatton, who shot a final-round 69: “Still pretty raw for me as an individual. It’s kind of hard to put that to one side. Golf is generally an individual sport, and ultimately your individual results will reflect what happens within the team.
“I’m really happy for the guys to have a solid weekend and for us to win our fourth event as a team, but it doesn’t change how I feel towards my own individual performance. It sucks to bogey the last in front of your home crowd to effectively miss out on a playoff. That’s unfortunately the reality of my situation at the moment.”
Both Rahm and Hatton started the final round intent on chasing down 36-hole leader Andy Ogletree of HyFlyers GC. Ogletree opened with consecutive birdies and led by four shots at one point before the rest of the field started to chip away at his lead.
Ogletree double-bogeyed the eighth hole but still had a share of the lead with Rahm after consecutive birdies at the drivable par-4 12th and par-5 13th. But the American followed with consecutive double bogeys on the next two holes to fall out of contention.
Englishman Paul Casey of Crushers GC was also in the hunt until he suffered his own double-bogey at the par-4 15th after an errant drive. Hard-charging Torque GC Captain Joaquin Niemann made a spirited run until a late bogey, while Ripper GC Captain Cameron Smith battled back from three early bogeys to make his presence felt.
In the end, though, it came down to Rahm and Hatton. The latter, who recently won his first LIV Golf title in Nashville, bounced back from a double-bogey at the sixth and was a bogey-free 3-under on his next 11 holes before reaching the 18th.
Meanwhile, Rahm seemed in command until he opened the door with a three-putt at the island-green 17th. At that point, Legion XIII was assured of the team title, but a playoff between teammates for the individual trophy seemed imminent – until it wasn’t.
It was an emotional victory on several levels for Rahm, who had finished in the top 10 in each of the previous nine LIV Golf tournaments he has completed.
“Finally got one done,” he said. “You never want to get those feelings to go on for too long, and to get over the hump feels great, incredible. It’s been a fantastic week and a fantastic year, and just relieved that it happened. … Feels like I got a lot of weight off my shoulders on that one.”
Fan are seen watching play at the 14th hole during the second round of LIV Golf United Kingdom by JCB
(Photo by Hailey Garrett/LIV Golf)
Standings and counting scores for Sunday’s final round of the team competition at LIV Golf UK by JCB. The three best scores from each team count in the first two rounds while all four scores count in the final round. The team with the lowest cumulative score after three rounds wins the team title.
1. LEGION XIII -26 (Rahm 67, Hatton 69, Surratt 71, Vincent 72; Rd. 3 score: -5)
2. RIPPER GC -23 (Jones 67, Herbert 67, Smith 69, Ormsby 71; Rd. 3 score: -10)
T3. CRUSHERS GC -20 (DeChambeau 67, Casey 70, Catlin 70, Lahiri 73; Rd. 3 score: -4)
T3. SMASH GC -20 (Gooch 70, McDowell 70, Koepka 72, Kokrak 73; Rd. 3 score: +1)
T5. FIREBALLS GC -19 (Puig 68, Ancer 70, Garcia 70, Chacarra 73; Rd. 3 score: -3)
T5. STINGER GC -19 (Schwartzel 68, Oosthuizen 70, Burmester 71, Grace 73; Rd. 3 score: -2)
T7. RANGEGOATS GC -18 (Pieters 68, Wolff 69, Uihlein 71, Watson 73; Rd. 3 score: -3)
T7. HYFLYERS GC -18 (Tringale 67, Steele 71, Mickelson 71, Ogletree 74; Rd. 3 score: -1)
9. TORQUE GC -17 (Niemann 65, Ortiz 73, Muñoz 73, Pereira 73; Rd. 3 score: E)
10. 4ACES GC -12 (Varner III 66, Johnson 68, Reed 70, Perez 76; Rd. 3 score: -4)
11. CLEEKS GC -11 (Bland 69, Meronk 70, Kaymer 73, Samooja 74; Rd. 3 score: +2)
12. IRON HEADS GC -2 (Kozuma 70, Vincent 71, Lee 74, Na 75; Rd. 3 score: +6)
13. MAJESTICKS GC -1 (Poulter 70, Westwood 71, Horsfield 76, Stenson 76; Rd. 3 score: +9)
First place team champions, Captain Jon Rahm of Legion XIII, Kieran Vincent of Legion XIII, Tyrrell Hatton of Legion XIII and Caleb Surratt of Legion XIII celebrate onstage during the trophy ceremony after the final round of LIV Golf United Kingdom by JCB
(Photo by Chris Trotman/LIV Golf)
LEGION XIII’S FOURTH WIN: LIV Golf’s newest team continues to find its way to the top of the podium in its expansion season.
Legion XIII, captained by Jon Rahm, won for a league-leading fourth time this season. It’s the third consecutive year that a LIV Golf team has won at least four times.
In the 2022 beta-test Invitational season, Dustin Johnson’s 4Aces GC won four regular-season tournaments, then capped the year by claiming the Team Championship.
In last year’s first full season, Joaquin Niemann’s Torque GC won four regular-season trophies but not the Team Championship.
And now Legion XIII has won four times, although the team remains in second place in the standings, 15.5 points behind Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GC, who have two wins and four other podium results, including a tie for third Sunday.
Although Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton are LIV Golf’s most lethal one-two punch this season, Kieran Vincent and first-year pro Caleb Surratt have produced for Legion XIII when needed, avoiding the crippling high scores that can prove to be the difference, especially when all four scores count in the final round.
“Even though it may not look like we had flashy scores today, we still put in good scores for what we had this week, so I’m proud of Caleb and obviously the rest of the guys,” Vincent said.
While Rahm shot a 4-under 67 to win and Hatton tied for second with a 69, Surratt shot an even-par 71 and Vincent a 1-over 72 in a round that included 17 pars and one bogey.
“When you’re looking at the leaderboard and you see what our team score is and then how these two guys were playing, it just makes you think of how great of an opportunity me and Kieran have to learn and compete with the two best players arguably,” said the 20-year-old Surratt. “That’s a blessing in itself. It was pretty great golf to watch.”
SMITH PLEASED WITH RIPPERS PODIUM: Ripper GC did not have Marc Leishman this weekend after he was forced to withdraw with appendicitis that required surgery.
Reserve player Wade Ormsby filled in for Leishman and shot consecutive rounds of even-par 71 as the all-Australian team managed a second-place team finish, three shots behind winners Legion XIII.
“We were missing Leish,” Smith said. “Not to say Wade isn’t a good player, but I think we could have been really close this week to getting a W. It was a really good effort by Wade, and he’ll be thanked.”
It’s the fourth podium finish for the Rippers, who have two team victories and are currently third in the season-long standings.
Matt Jones and Lucas Herbert each shot 4-under 67s to lead the Rippers on Sunday. Meanwhile, Smith shot 69 to tie for second individually. It’s his third runner-up finish this season.
“It’s hard because I feel like I didn’t do much wrong the first six or seven holes, and I was a couple over par,” Smith said of his final round. “Really just staying in it. It goes to show what you can do from not even being in the tournament to almost winning it. Yeah, it was good to stick in there, good to hit some good shots down the stretch with some pressure on.”
Captain Joaquín Niemann of Torque GC walks to the eighth green during the second round of LIV Golf United Kingdom by JCB
(Photo by Matthew Harris/LIV Golf)
NIEMANN REMAINS NO. 1: Torque GC Captain Joaquin Niemann continues to set the pace atop the season-long individual standings, as he shot a 6-under 65 – low round in the field on Sunday – to finish in a tie for second behind LIV Golf UK winner Jon Rahm.
Niemann has a 24-point lead over Rahm, and 46 points over No. 3 Tyrrell Hatton going into the final two regular-season tournaments that will decide the season-long Individual Championship.
The top three in points after LIV Golf Chicago each earn season-long bonuses.
SEVEN HEADED TO OLYMPICS: LIV Golf UK by JCB winner Jon Rahm and six other LIV Golf players are now headed to France to compete for Olympic medals in next week’s men’s tournament at Le Golf National outside of Paris.
Rahm will represent Spain along with Fireballs GC’s David Puig. Competing for Chile are Torque GC teammates Joaquin Niemann and Mito Pereira. Another Torque player, Carlos Ortiz, will play for Mexico, as will Fireballs’ Abraham Ancer. Adrian Meronk of Cleeks GC is representing Poland.
The 72-hole individual stroke-play competition starts Thursday.
ROUND 3 STATS LEADERS
Driving accuracy: Anirban Lahiri, 85.71% (12 of 14 fairways hit)
Driving distance: David Puig, 322.1 yards avg.
Longest drive: Matthew Wolff, 332.5 yards, 10th hole
Greens in regulation: Jon Rahm, Matthew Wolff, 88.89% (16 of 18 greens)
Scrambling: Charl Schwartzel (5 of 5), Harold Varner III (3 of 3), Jon Rahm (2 of 2), 100%
Putting: Joaquin Niemann, Louis Oosthuizen, Matt Jones, Patrick Reed, Thomas Pieters, Caleb Surratt, 1.44 putts per hole
Bogey-free rounds: Charl Schwartzel (68)
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