Jon Rahm ended his first season with LIV Golf with his second tournament win in three starts to secure the season-long individual championship.
The Legion XIII captain never finished out the top-10 in his 12 starts since December.
“I wouldn’t say it exceeded my expectations, but it definitely met what I expected,” said Rahm, who scooped a $22m pay day thanks to his victory at Bolingbrook Golf Club in Chicago and the overall title.
The 29-year-old Spanish star shot a 4-under 66 on Sunday to hold off Joaquin Niemann and Sergio Garcia by three shots.
In shooting 11 under, Rahm played bogey-free golf for the last 38 holes and suffered just one bogey all week while winning for the second time. He also won in LIV Golf UK in July and came close to winning in Greenbrier last month, losing in a playoff to Brooks Koepka.
The battle between Rahm and Niemann for the Individual Championship was just one of several races to be determined in this week’s regular-season finale.
Final seeds for Dallas were finalised, with Crushers GC, Legion XIII and Ripper GC earning the three byes for next Friday’s quarter-finals.
“PRESSURE IS A PRIVILEGE”
With Rahm and Niemann finishing 1-2 in the individual standings, Garcia overtook Tyrrell Hatton for the final bonus-earning spot on the podium. The margin between Garcia and Hatton, who finished solo fourth, was just one point.
Rahm entered the final day with a three-stroke advantage over Niemann, who needed to finish ahead of Rahm on the leaderboard to win the championship.
Niemann started with birdies on two of his first three holes to apply early pressure, but Rahm never wavered. He made three birdies in his first 10 holes, and then made two consecutive par-saving putts on 11 and 12 to avoid giving Niemann an opening.
A three-putt par at the par-5 14th was the only negative of Rahm’s round, but he bounced back with a birdie at 17 to close out any hopes of a late Niemann rally. The fact that the season’s three best players finished at the top of the Chicago leaderboard was a fitting finale.
“You can’t really script it that much better?” Rahm said. “It was definitely a stressful day, but that pressure is a privilege.”
Said Niemann: “I knew I had to do something great, and I felt like I did. I played amazing golf. But I feel like to beat someone like Jon Rahm, you’ve got to do things better.”
“It’s a different feeling,” Rahm said. “Just being able to culminate all the good golf all season, and especially doing it by winning individually today I think is what makes it so much more special. Knowing that I had to win and getting it done is something to really be proud of and something to reflect on.”