The wine-beer debate: Rahm and Hatton share a special chemistry that fuels Legion XIII

ROCESTER, England – Jon Rahm is a wine guy. Tyrrell Hatton is a beer guy who tried to convert his Legion XIII captain at The Open Championship with a pint of Guinness.

It did not go well.

“I tried it last week. I just don’t like it,” Rahm said. “I wish I did. I feel left out. Like when you finish playing and somebody can just relax and have a beer – I don’t know. I feel like you can’t always go to a pub and be like, I need my glass of wine.”

Rahm’s disdain for beer might have reached its apex in Northern Ireland, the land of the world famous creamy-headed dry stout. It especially perplexed Hatton, who famously divulged his three-limit post-round consumption rule on Guinness to the British press.

“It was probably not the place to say you don’t like Guinness there last week,” he informed Rahm. “You’re not going to get a better pint than there, to be honest.”

On the flip side, Hatton will enjoy the occasional glass of wine. That doesn’t mean he shares the same taste as his Spanish teammate. Rahm, having grown up in the Basque Country known for its Txakoli and Rioja Alavesa, arguably has the more complex and experienced palate.

Their differences in preferred wine have become even more apparent since joining LIV Golf to spearhead the league’s first expansion team.

“At first it was like, I like it; I like it too,” Rahm said. “But then you get to know, what do you like? So that’s been a bit more profound.”

As the wine vs beer debate played out amidst a media center-full of laughter Wednesday, it was apparent that Rahm and Hatton have developed a special kind of chemistry. Certainly, they’ve found the winning formula as LIV Golf’s best 1-2 punch on any team.

Legion XIII enters this week’s LIV Golf UK by JCB not only as defending champions but also the current season-long leader in team points. They’ve won three times in 2025, including the previous tournament in Andalucía two weeks ago. Add their four wins last season, and Legion XIII has won seven of its first 24 events for an impressive 30% success rate. And that’s with Rahm having to WD from one start due to injury and missing last year’s Team Championship with an illness.

Even more impressive, Legion XIII is winning with two of the youngest players in the league, Caleb Surratt (21) and Tom McKibbin (22). Each has an uncanny knack for providing scores in the clutch, and McKibbin has been one of the league’s top 15 players this season, ranking even ahead of Hatton. He’s finished top 5 in each of the last two LIV Golf events.

But there’s no doubt that Legion’s success has been fueled mostly by Rahm and Hatton, who combined to win three individual titles last year while balancing their individual desires with team goals.

“When you see them on the golf course competing against each other, you know they’re not friends; they’re eagerly trying to beat each other,” said Surratt, who has been there as a Day 1 teammate. “I think having that balance between friends and foes is really impressive.”

That balance was especially apparent at last year’s LIV Golf UK. Both Rahm and Hatton were fighting for the individual trophy down the stretch, with Rahm eventually claiming his first league win after Hatton bogeyed the final hole, prevented him from forcing a playoff.

It was a bittersweet celebration for Rahm. He had won. His team had won. But his close friend had lost.

“I don’t know if there’s been many cases where two teammates have gone at each other to win the individual title and then go on to win the team title as well,” Rahm said. “You never want to see a teammate and a friend make a mistake on the last to win.

“In a weird way, as much as I like that I won here, it’s not something that I can celebrate.”

It’s a respect factor between the two, a closeness that has developed in the last few years, jump-started by their partnership two years ago at the Ryder Cup when they halved their fourballs match against Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau.

Since joining LIV Golf together, their friendship has accelerated. It’s one of the benefits of the league’s team component, with players practicing, competing and hanging out during the week.

“Spending more time together, obviously playing around the world and practice rounds and everything like that – naturally, you just get closer,” Hatton said. “It’s been fun.”

It’s obviously fun to win and celebrate by popping champagne bottles at the top of the podium. But it’s also fun just being teammates.

“One thing about both of us is that as much as we may act on the golf course, we're not afraid to make fun of each other or make fun of ourselves,” Rahm said. “We've shared a few laughs about things we may have done on the course. … I think, like any other friendship, in general, you just get to know each other a little bit better.

“It's a balance, right, because we spend a lot of great time together, but we also want to beat each other, and when we're playing together it's glaringly obvious that we want to beat each other. We don't say it. But it is what it is. It's a friendly competition as well within things, and I think that's why it works so well.”

It's working so well that McKibbin and Surratt have developed their own kinship, following the example set by their older teammates.

“It's good to see two great players being such great friends,” Surratt said. “Tom and I have become really good friends as well.”

There’s one big difference, though. Neither Surratt – who became of legal drinking age in March – nor McKibbin seem particularly interested in 19th hole festivities. Some topics are best left to the guys with beards to figure out.