Rahm shoots 60, edges Niemann for Individual Championship

WESTFIELD, Ind. – Jon Rahm relied on his impressive consistency this season to give himself the opportunity to defend his LIV Golf Individual Championship this week at LIV Golf Indianapolis. On Sunday, he produced the kind of fireworks that earned him a second straight season-long title.

Rahm shot a career-best 11-under 60 to pass points leader Joaquin Niemann on the final day of the regular season at The Club at Chatham Hills that was delayed by an hour due to inclement weather. It also gave him a chance to earn his first tournament title this season – but for the second straight week, he lost on the first hole of a playoff, this time to Niemann’s Torque GC teammate Sebastian Munoz.

Related: Top 3, Lock Zone, Relegated players, more notes | Scores

It left the Legion XIII captain with mixed emotions after a season in which he finished runner-up four times and finished outside the top 10 just once (a T11 in Dallas) in 13 regular-season starts. No player could match the week-to-week tenacity displayed by Rahm, and ultimately that proved to be the difference over Niemann, a five-time tournament winner this season.

“It’s a great moment, but it just doesn’t feel great to finish the year losing two playoffs,” said Rahm, who finished at 22 under. “… I’m sure over time I’ll get over that, and I’ll really appreciate what I’ve done this year. To be able to win the season without actually winning a tournament, I know I’ll be proud of that.”

Rahm’s solo second left him with 226.16 points this season, while Niemann’s tie for fourth on Sunday put him at 223.68. It’s the only time this season that Niemann finished inside the top 15 of the leaderboard without winning the tournament; his hit-or-miss season eventually caught up with him. It’s the second consecutive year in which Rahm has overtaken Niemann down the stretch to win the season-long title.

“It’s kind of hard to swallow,” said Niemann, who shot a 5-under 66 to tie for fourth. “But at the end of the day, I think it is what it is. I feel like it’s going to put something inside me to kind of work harder and try to be in this situation again next year and make it different.”

Niemann did get to celebrate a trophy with his Torque team, which set a LIV Golf record by shooting a cumulative 64 under to win by 10 strokes over Rahm’s Legion XIII team. It’s Torque’s first win since the 2023 season, ending a drought of 28 regular-season events without a win, and it came in front of the largest attended LIV Golf event ever held in the U.S., with more than 60,000 fans on the course for the three-day tournament.

In addition, Niemann was glad to see his teammate Muñoz break through with his first career win in six years and his first LIV Golf individual title after knocking on the door multiple times since joining the league.

Muñoz, who opened the week with an historic 12-under 59 on Friday that included 14 birdies and a double bogey, ended Sunday’s round with a terrific up-and-down birdie at the par-5 17th and a birdie in regulation at the 18th to tie Rahm – and then beat Rahm with a birdie putt from inside 6 feet in the playoff. Rahm saw his own approach shot in the playoff bang off the flagstick, leaving him with a longer birdie putt that he missed.

“I got a little lucky that he didn’t hit as close to me, and I finished it quick,” Muñoz said, who moved to fourth in the season-long standings behind Rahm, Niemann and Crushers GC Captain Bryson DeChambeau. “First time I’ve ever beaten him, so really proud of that and happy that I got to go home with the trophy.”

Said Rahm: “Kudos to Sebastián for finishing the way he did. That up-and-down on 17 was incredible, and then playing 18 the way he needed to twice in a row is fantastic. It’s only fitting to shoot 59 and win the tournament. I can live with my head high knowing that I’ve given it my all every single shot of the season.”

Several other layers of drama played out in the final day, including the players at the other end of the points spectrum who were hoping to avoid relegation.

Majesticks GC Co-Captains Ian Poulter and Henrik Stenson jockeyed for position for the 48th and final spot in the Open Zone, with Poulter ultimately finishing 0.38 points – essentially one shot over the course of the season – over Stenson. Five other players joined Stenson in relegation, including Torque’s Mito Pereira.

“Hopefully, I’ll have more opportunities in the future,” Pereira said. “If not, I know I gave my best these past two years.”

It was a day of mixed emotions, with incredible highs and heartbreaking lows. Nothing epitomized it more than Rahm shooting 60 to win one trophy but losing another one in the playoff. In the end, he benefited from all his “scrap time” results that turned slow starts into dazzling results with a gritty, never-say-die effort.

“It’s always been in my DNA to fight as hard as one can until the end of the tournament,” Rahm said. “I think with that mentality, I’ve been able to have a lot of really good Sundays and put myself in a good position and keep adding points. Slow and steady in this case won the race.”

TEAM SCORES

LIV Golf’s scoring format involves all four scores counting in every round in the team competition. Here are the final results and scores for each team after Sunday’s Rd. 3 of LIV Golf Indianapolis.

1. TORQUE GC -64 (Ortiz 63, Muñoz 65, Pereira 65, Niemann 66; Rd. 3 score: -25)

2. LEGION XIII -54 (Rahm 60, Hatton 64, Surratt 64, McKibbin 67; Rd. 3 score: -29)

3. FIREBALLS GC -50 (Ancer 64, Ballester 65, Garcia 65, Puig 66; Rd. 3 score: -24)

4. 4ACES GC -49 (Johnson 67, Pieters 67, Reed 68, Varner III 69; Rd. 3 score: -13)

5. CRUSHERS GC -48 (DeChambeau 65, Howell III 66, Casey 67, Lahiri 69; Rd. 3 score: -17)

6. MAJESTICKS GC -45 (Horsfield 63, Westwood 66, Poulter 67, Stenson 72; Rd. 3 score: -16)

7. STINGER GC -42 (Oosthuizen 64, Grace 65, Schwartzel 67, Burmester 68; Rd. 3 score: -20)

8. RANGEGOATS GC -41 (Wolff 65, Campbell 66, Uihlein 66, Watson 66; Rd. 3 score: -21)

9. HYFLYERS GC -40 (Tringale 65, Steele 66, Mickelson 68, Ogletree 70; Rd. 3 score: -15)

10. SMASH GC -27 (McDowell 66, Gooch 67, Kokrak 67, Koepka 68; Rd. 3 score: -16)

11. IRON HEADS GC -25 (Jang 64, Lee 65, Na 69, Kozuma 71; Rd. 3 score: -15)

12. CLEEKS GC -22 (Bland 65, Meronk 67, Kjettrup 68, Kaymer 69; Rd. 3 score: -15)

13. RIPPER GC -18 (Herbert 67, Jones 67, Smith 67, Leishman 73; Rd. 3 score: -10)

Wild Cards: Kim 68, C. Lee 69