Individual winner Joaquín Niemann, captain of Torque GC and his caddie Diego Salinas pose with the LIV Golf New York trophy at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Sunday. Image courtesy LIV Golf.
From a Correspondent
Bedminster, New Jersey: The conclusion of Sunday’s final round at LIV Golf New York turned into a showcase for the league’s biggest winners.
Torque GC captain Joaquin Niemann extended his record to nine tournament wins with a clutch back-nine performance to shoot a 2 under par 69 and win by three shots.
“A great feeling to have, especially coming down the stretch on how tough this golf course is,” said the 27-year-old Chilean, the league’s youngest captain.
Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GC emerged as the team champions in a tight battle against Torque and Legion XIII to become the winningest team in league history with 11 regular-season tournament titles.
“It’s just the truth – when golf courses get tougher, it seems like we shine more for some reason,” DeChambeau said.
And Legion XIII captain Jon Rahm clinched his third consecutive individual championship, a reflection of his dominance despite a rare off-form performance at the challenging Trump National Bedminster course.
Rahm won twice this season and added four second-place finishes.
“It’s been a great year,” said Rahm after shooting a closing 5 over 76 that left him tied for 41st, his lowest finish in any of the 36 LIV Golf starts that he’s completed.
“A little sour taste in my mouth because of how badly I played this week. But it’s been something to be proud of.”
Impressive display
Niemann was certainly the most impressive individual player at Bedminster, shooting 16 under to become the fifth wire-to-wire winner this season and winning for the second time in his last four starts.
Entering the day with a two-stroke lead, he was tied with Harold Varner III through 11 holes.
But after Varner suffered his first bogey at the day at the 12th, Niemann followed with a 58-foot birdie putt at the 13th to re-establish his two-stroke advantage.
Two holes later at the par-5 15th, Niemann’s second shot landed 26 feet from the pin, and he drilled the eagle putt to essentially seal the tournament.
“I was going to be pretty happy with two putts there, and it was quite a surprise to make that one,” said Niemann about his long putt on the 13th. “It’s one of those that I just go to be grateful about it and just go pick it up and run. It was a big moment.”
The Crushers won with a cumulative score of 6 over, the highest ever by a winning team in LIV Golf history.
On Thursday, they opened with a score of 11 over and were tied for 11th but steadily worked their way up the leaderboard the rest of the week, relying on their veteran depth rather than the heroics of two-time US Open winner DeChambeau, who ultimately tied for 38th.
Paul Casey was the team’s top performer, shooting 6 under for the week to tie for 6th and producing a clutch 3 under 68 on Sunday. Anirban Lahiri tied for 17th at 1 over and Charles Howell IIII tied for 28th at 4 over.
The Crushers entered the final round eight strokes back of Torque but shot a cumulative 1 under to Torque’s 9 over. Lahiri birdied his last hole to provide separation from Legion XIII, who tied for second with Torque.
Keen to win
“I think when you get to a Sunday afternoon and we get in with a sniff, I think all our tails go up,” said Lahiri, who joined the team four years ago in Boston to complete its current lineup. “Like, we really want to win pretty badly.”
As for Rahm, his threepeat as individual champion is a standard no other player in league history can match. He has 944.54 points this season, which is 218.34 points more than his nearest competitor, DeChambeau.
With one regular-season tournament left at LIV Golf Indianapolis in two weeks, Rahm cannot be caught, since individual wins are worth 200 points.
In his first two seasons, Rahm had to win his season-long titles in the final regular-season tournament. Not this year.
“Most season-long races, you have to wait until the last event because the last even counts so much,” he said. “But it feels different this year. …
“This year to play as good as I did early on and have such a big lead that I can even enjoy not playing good this week and next week, it feels really good.”
“What Jon has done over the past few years here and how he was able to top 10 pretty much every single week … for how many events now has he played … that’s crazy,” DeChambeau said.
“I can’t explain or describe that in any other way other than it’s crazy what Jon has done out here.”
Added Niemann: “I played with Jon almost every weekend for the last two years. How competitive he is, he definitely doesn’t like losing, and I’m the same way as well.” (courtesy LIV Golf)
Leaderboards
Individual Top 10
1. (-16) – Joaquin Niemann, Torque (64-65-70-69)
2. (-13) – Harold Varner, OKGC (69-67-65-70)
T3 (-9) – Lee Westwood, Majesticks (69-65-69-72); Scott Vincent, HyFlyers (69-68-72-66)
5. (-7) – Byeong Hun An, Korean (72-68-68-69)
T6 (-6) – Thomas Pieters, 4Aces (68-70-70-70); Tom McKibbin, Legion XIII (70-66-70-72); Paul Casey, Crushers (70-67-73-68)
T9 (-4) – Younghan Song, Korean (72-70-68-70); Branden Grace, Southern Guards (73-69-72-66)
Team Top 3
1. (+6) – Crushers GC (DeChambeau 76-74-70-71, Casey 70-67-73-68, Howell III 75-69-71-73, Lahiri 74-67-73-71)
T2 (+8) – Legion XIII (Rahm 72-71-73-76, Hatton 73-76-69-72, McKibbin 70-66-70-72, Surratt 76-69-68-71)
T2 (+8) – Torque GC (Niemann 64-65-70-69, Ancer 71-72-70-76, Ortiz 71-71-76-73, Munoz 74-71-76-75)
Day 4 stats
Driving Distance: Matthew Wolff, 315.6-yard avg.
Longest Drive: Dean Burmester, 325.9 yards (15th hole). Official measured drives taken only on holes 15 and 18.
Driving Accuracy: Sergio Garcia, 100% (14 of 14)
Greens in Regulation: Richard T. Lee, 88.89% (16 of 18)
Scrambling:Scott Vincent (5 of 5), Laurie Canter (5 of 5), Brendan Steele (4 of 4), Paul Casey (3 of 3), Richard T. Lee (2 of 2), 100%
Fewest Putts:Peter Uihlein, 23
Bogey-free rounds: Scott Vincent (66), Richard T. Lee (67), Paul Casey (68)
Also read: Status quo at LIV Golf New York as Neimann, Torque stay ahead
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