Spin to win: How Legion XIII’s Rahm, Hatton got the job done in Michigan

PLYMOUTH, Mich. – Whether it’s alleviating the monotony of long practice sessions around the putting green or just amusing each other by creating magical redirection journeys with their golf balls, Legion XIII teammates Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton have, on more than one occasion since joining LIV Golf, gone for a spin.

Specifically, with their wedges, usually from 30 to 40 yards from the selected target. Just trying to see how much spin they can produce. Two of the world’s elite golfers having a kid’s moment. Ripping it back. Sharing a laugh.

“Probably have more fun doing that than other things,” Hatton said.

But here’s the important thing in all this.

“Even if you’re messing about,” Hatton said, “it’s still practice. It all adds up in the end.”

On Sunday at the LIV Golf Michigan Team Championship, it added up for the biggest win by their Legion XIII team since joining the league last year as its first expansion team.

It’s the second playoff hole. Rahm and Hatton are in a battle against the Crushers GC duo of Bryson DeChambeau and Paul Casey. Lowest aggregate score wins the league’s most prestigious team trophy. All four players have found the fairway at the 18th hole at The Cardinal at Saint John’s.

Hatton has a wedge fom 70 yards. Not only must he carry the bunker guarding the front left of the green, he wants to hit the shot deep enough so that it spins back toward the pin.

His shot is perfect. It hits pin high, bounces a few feet, then spins back to essentially tap-in birdie range.

Rahm has a shot from 54 yards. His shot is more succinct – less spin but still effective. Another short birdie putt.

Meanwhile, Casey’s wedge shot doesn’t stay on the top plateau, while DeChambeau – in a rare poor result on an otherwise impressive day in which he shot a bogey-free 62 – sees his wedge shot come up short and find the rough between the bunker and the green.

It was a mere formality after that. Both Legion XIII players birdied. Both Crushers GC players parred. Playoff over. Legion XIII are champions.

“My wedges have been pretty good all week,” Hatton said. “I felt very comfortable ove there. It was a nice pin. The kid inside me wanted to pitch it long and rip it back. That’s part of the fun of being like a kid at times.”

It certainly impressed their young teammates.

“There’s no two other people in the world that I would want hitting those wedge shots,” said 21-year-old Caleb Surratt. “I don’t think TV can justify how hard of a shot that is. It’s downwind, it’s short-sided. The ball’s on a downslope.”

Added 22-year-old Tom McKibbin: “I’m glad I wasn’t hitting the shots.”

Spin control can be tricky. Rahm can generate argubly the most spin on his wedges than anybody in the game, but it can sometimes can back to haunt him.

It took him awhile to dial it in last week in the regular-season finale in Indianapolis. Once he did, he shot a final-round 60 to make a playoff that he ultimately lost to Sebastian Munoz. But the earlier round issues likely cost him the winning stroke to avoid the playoff.

Even on Sunday in Michigan, he went through a stretch of 12 consecutive pars that forced him into a heroic rally late in his round. On this day, it wasn’t his spin control but his putter that kept him from a few more birdies.

But ultimately, Rahm found the answer. So did Hatton.

“Tyrrell and I got it going a little late but better late than never,” Rahm said. “When it came to the playoff, I felt fairly confident we're both really good wedge players, and if we just put it in the fairway, I was fairly confident we were going to give ourselves a lot of chances.”

In a game of spin the wedges, Rahm and Hatton have few equals. Fun on practice days helped fuel a championship on Sunday. It’s a lesson a golfer at any level can appreciate.