Rahm dominates Mexico as LIV Golf reiterates ‘business as usual’ – Golf News

Despite all the noise in the background about the short and long-term future of LIV Golf, the league event in Mexico City went ahead as planned, with Jon Rahm bouncing back from his poor performance at the Masters with a huge six-shot victory at Club de Golf Chapultepec.

Rahm, who moved up to No. 20 with his win, shot a final round of 7-under 64 to finish a distance ahead of nearest competitor David Puig.

It’s the best decision in the Spaniard’s four wins since joining LIV Golf ahead of the 2024 season – and has helped make him the league’s winningest player in every tournament. With his Legion XIII team claiming the team trophy again on Sunday by nine shots, Rahm has now won 16 different LIV Golf trophies, putting him ahead of Bryson DeChambeau of Crushers GC, despite playing two fewer seasons.

“A little bit of disbelief,” said Rahm, who finished at 21 under a week after finishing 38th at the Masters. “If you had told me last week on Thursday afternoon that I would win by six goals this week, I wouldn’t have believed you because of the way I played.

Entering the day with a two-stroke lead, Rahm opened with a par, then drove to a distance of 318 yards and 4 seconds, where he putted 66 feet for birdie. He followed up with a drive to the green and, this time on the 390-yard par-4 third, his perfect shot finished within 3 feet of eagle. Birdie putts from 14 feet and 20 feet on the next two holes extended his lead to six shots.

Meanwhile, Legion XIII teammate Tyrrell Hatton, who started the day just two shots behind and played in the final group with Rahm, bogeyed twice on the second driveable hole and never recovered, shooting aa 72 and finishing in a tie for fifth.

Puig, however, kept the heat going with his hot start including birdies on his first three of four holes and an eagle on the par-5 seventh. When Puig birdied the 10, Rahm’s lead was cut to three.

But Rahm followed up a key save on the 10th with a birdie on the par-5 12th, and Puig bogeyed the par-4 13th and 15th holes. That gave Rahm enough breathing room, allowing him to enjoy the walk from tee to green on the par-3 18th, with fans reaching out to congratulate him on a well-received victory.

“That putt on the 10th hole was huge,” Rahm said. “It’s still a while before the scorecard shows up. A six-goal lead would have been three times faster and maybe one or two times slower.”

Meanwhile, Legion XIII wasn’t really threatened in the team event, even if their LIV Golf-record 19-shot through 36 holes was cut in half by the rising Fireballs. The team’s victory is Legion XIII’s ninth of the regular season, tying them with the Crushers for the most of any team.

Legion XIII entered the final round with a chance to sweep the individual field, with Rahm, Hatton and Tom McKibbin starting in the top three. Incidentally, Rahm shared the field with fellow Spaniards Puig and Josele Ballester of the Fireballs.

FUTURE OBLIGATIONS

The tournament ended with LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil committing LIV Golf to return to Mexico next year despite the Saudi PIF not guaranteeing LIV Golf’s support beyond the end of the current season.

O’Neil sent an email to LIV Golf staff on Wednesday last week saying the league would continue “full steam ahead” in 2026 without mentioning any future plans.

He wrote: “The life of a start-up organization is often defined by these moments of stress. We are writing this because we believe in disrupting the status quo. We have faced difficult situations since our inception, and we have always responded with resilience and grace. Now, we are responding by doing what we do best: putting on the most compelling show in sports.”

However, speaking to a LIV Golf reporter live on camera on Thursday – in a clip of the interview that was later retracted – O’Neil said: “The reality is you’re funded for the season, and then you work like crazy as a business to build a business and a business plan to keep us going. But that’s no different than any other privately funded business in human history.”

Last week the PIF released details of its new five-year investment strategy report, which made no mention of LIV Golf or any reference to the sport. Instead, the report said the Kingdom will focus on the domestic economy to diversify Saudi Arabia’s dependence on oil.

The PIF said it plans to move from “a period of rapid and accelerated growth to a new phase of sustainable value creation, with a strong focus on increasing impact, increasing investment efficiency, and implementing high levels of governance, transparency and institutional excellence.”