Niemann, Rahm in familiar Individual Championship battle

As the midway point of the 2025 LIV Golf season approaches, Torque GC Captain Joaquin Niemann ranks first in the Individual Championship race, with Legion XIII Captain Jon Rahm as his closest pursuer. If that seems reminiscent of last year’s battle at this stage, well, it is.

Almost an exact copy, in fact.

Niemann currently leads Rahm by 30.3 points after winning his third tournament of the season on Sunday at LIV Golf Mexico City. A year ago through six events, Niemann led Rahm by 31.98 points, having won twice in the first half.

Of course, we know how it turned out in 2024.

Rahm eventually turned his steady top-10 play into two wins and a runner-up finish in his last three starts to catch Niemann and win the Individual Championship in the final regular-season head-to-head showdown in Chicago. For Rahm, it was a great way to close out his debut year on LIV Golf; for Niemann, it was a disappointing end after leading the standings for the majority of the year.

Having suffered that harsh conclusion, Niemann is determined to keep the pedal down and maintain his form over the final seven regular-season events – especially now that he’s also exempt into all three of the remaining majors this year, having clinched LIV Golf’s U.S. Open exemption with his victory at Club de Golf Chapultepec.

“I need to take advantage of the good golf I’m playing right now, to capitalize on it, to rack up points for the individual standings,” Niemann said. “There’s still a lot of golf left to play, a lot of work to do. That excites me more and more, seeing how the year started and thinking about how we can finish it now.”

Niemann’s win in Mexico City was his fifth solo victory in LIV Golf. If he wins again at this week’s LIV Golf Korea presented by Coupang Play, he can break the tie with Smash GC Captain Brooks Koepka and become the league’s all-time winningest individual player.

Even if he does, he’ll be hard-pressed to shake Rahm, who doesn’t seem capable of finishing outside the top 10 in any LIV Golf event. In his first 19 regular season starts, Rahm’s only non-top 10 was last year in Houston when he withdrew in the second round due to a foot injury. That means he’s a perfect 18-for-18 in top 10 finishes when he completes LIV Golf’s full 54-hole tournament.

On the flip side, Rahm has just one podium result this season, a tie for second in the season opener under the lights in Riyadh. He realizes he’ll again need to convert some of his chances into wins if he’s going to catch Niemann again.

“While I like having top 10s and I like being a good player week in and week out, winning obviously is what matters more,” Rahm said. “I would gladly give up some of those top 10s for more wins.”

Rahm has enjoyed plenty of podium celebrations as the Legion XIII captain, his team winning its second title this season in Mexico City to vault to the top of the team standings. Overall, it’s the club’s sixth win since becoming LIV Golf’s first expansion team a year ago.

But last week was also a microcosm of his individual performances. Rahm started the final round in fourth but only a stroke behind Niemann. While Niemann played the front nine in a bogey-free 3 under, Rahm opened with a bogey and was just 1 under at the turn. That left him three strokes to make up with nine to play – too much of a deficit to catch a red-hot player.

“I keep playing well. I keep putting myself close enough,” Rahm said. “Just every once in a while there’s been enough mistakes where I’ m just not quite close enough going into the back nine on Sunday. If I can just clean that up, I know I’m playing well enough to win.

“Usually it’s very little things that can change a season. Usually it’s one swing or one hole that can ignite a great run. Hopefully I can do that and have a great finish to the year like I did last year.”

Niemann, understandably, wants to avoid a repeat when the regular season ends Aug. 14-16 at LIV Golf Indianapolis.

“It’s been exciting, the last six events here at LIV, the way I’ve been playing, the way I’ve been feeling on the course,” said the 26-year-old Chilean, LIV Golf’s youngest captain. “I feel like there’s been a lot of trust and a lot of faith in the work that I’ve been putting in …

“The second half is going to get pretty intense, majors coming in the way as well, and a lot of travel. It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be interesting.”

But will it be different than 2024? Stay tuned.