After finishing in the top 10 in his first nine appearances on the LIV Golf circuit, Jon Rahm finally managed to hit the lead when it mattered when he captured the UK league event at JCB Golf & Country Club.
The 29-year-old Spanish star won two trophies at LIV Golf UK by JCB, claiming his first LIV Golf title while also leading Legion XIII to their fourth team victory of the season.
It was a much-anticipated victory since the two-time winner joined the league last December. But it was also a bittersweet win as it came at the expense of his close friend and Legion XIII teammate Tyrrell Hatton.
Rahm, who plays in the group ahead of Hatton, finished the final round with a 4-under 67 to leave him at 13 under. Hatton was also 13 under as he played the 18th hole. The Englishman, playing in front of a home crowd, found the green twice, then made good on his 76-foot birdie putt to 5 feet.
But with a chance to force his captain's play, Hatton missed the par putt, leaving the entire team in muted celebration.
“Obviously, you always want to win,” said Rahm, who won for the first time since the 2023 Masters. “Selfishly you always want to do that. But you don't want to see your colleagues and a good friend miss out on that happening to me.
“It's an unusual situation that I don't think any of us are used to.”
Said Hatton, who shot a final round 69: “It's still bad for me as a person. It's hard to put that aside. Golf is often an individual game, and ultimately your individual results will reflect what happens on the team.
“I'm really happy for the boys for having a strong weekend and winning our fourth game as a team, but it doesn't change how I feel about my performance. It's sad to make the final bogey in front of the home crowd only to miss out on success. Unfortunately that is the reality of my situation right now.”
Both Rahm and Hatton began the final round in pursuit of 36-hole leader Andy Ogletree of HyFlyers GC. Ogletree opened with back-to-back birdies and led by four shots at one point before the rest of the field began to rally for his lead.
Ogletree bogeyed the eighth hole but still shared the lead with Rahm after back-to-back birdies at the driving par-4 12th and par-5 13th. But the Americans followed with back-to-back bogeys on the next two holes to drop out of contention.
Englishman Paul Casey of Crushers GC was also in the hunt until he suffered a double bogey at the par-4 15th after a driving error. Hard-charging Torque GC captain Joaquin Niemann made a run to the death, while Ripper GC captain Cameron Smith battled back from three early bogeys to make his presence felt.
In the end, though, it came down to Rahm and Hatton. The latter, who just won his first LIV Golf title in Nashville, bounced back from a double-bogey at the sixth and was 3-under-bogey-free over his next 11 holes before the 18.
Meanwhile, Rahm appeared to be in control until he opened the door with three putts on the 17th green. At that point, Legion XIII was assured of the club title, but a playoff between each of the cup's teams seemed imminent – until it was.
It was an emotional victory on several levels for Rahm, who had finished in the top 10 in the last nine LIV Golf tournaments he completed.
“I finally made one,” he said. “You never want to get those feelings to last too long, and getting over the hump feels good, it's incredible. It's been a great week and a great year, and I'm just glad it happened. … It feels like I have a lot of weight on my shoulders in that one.”
SCORING GROUP FROM LIV GOLF UK
1. LEGION XIII -26 (Rahm 67, Hatton 69, Surratt 71, Vincent 72; Rd. 3 score: -5)
2. RIPPER GC -23 (Jones 67, Herbert 67, Smith 69, Ormsby 71; Rd. 3 score: -10)
T3. CRUSHERS GC -20 (DeChambeau 67, Casey 70, Catlin 70, Lahiri 73; Rd. 3 score: -4)
T3. SMASH GC -20 (Gooch 70, McDowell 70, Koepka 72, Kokrak 73; Rd. 3 score: +1)
T5. FIREBALLS GC -19 (Puig 68, Ancer 70, Garcia 70, Chacarra 73; Rd. 3 score: -3)
T5. STINGER GC -19 (Schwartzel 68, Oosthuizen 70, Burmester 71, Grace 73; Rd. 3 score: -2)
T7. RANGEGOATS GC -18 (Pieters 68, Wolff 69, Uihlein 71, Watson 73; Rd. 3 score: -3)
T7. HYFLYERS GC -18 (Tringale 67, Steele 71, Mickelson 71, Ogletree 74; Rd. 3 score: -1)
9. TORQUE GC -17 (Niemann 65, Ortiz 73, Muñoz 73, Pereira 73; Rd. 3 score: E)
10. 4ACES GC -12 (Varner III 66, Johnson 68, Reed 70, Perez 76; Rd. 3 score: -4)
11. CLEKS GC -11 (Bland 69, Meronk 70, Kaymer 73, Samooja 74; Rd. 3 score: +2)
12. IRON HEADS GC -2 (Kozuma 70, Vincent 71, Lee 74, Na 75; Rd. 3 score: +6)
13. JESTICKS GC -1 (Poulter 70, Westwood 71, Horsfield 76, Stenson 76; Rd. 3 score: +9)
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