Tom McKibbin secured a share of eleventh place at LIV Golf UK as Legion XIII earned their fourth team title of the 2025 season while Joaquin Niemann was in a league of his own, clinching his fifth win of a superb campaign.
Niemann’s latest win comes in his first event since parting ways with his caddie and swing coach and he looks set to win the season long individual race in two weeks.
The Chilean carded a three-under 68 for a seventeen-under total and it was enough for a three shot win over Bubba Watson who brought some back nine fireworks going eight-under for six holes to trim an eight shot gap to just two, but Niemann held on.
Teeing off with a six shot lead, Niemann looked to be in cruise control when he opened with two birdies in his first three holes. Even with a dropped shot on the sixth his lead looked in little danger especially when he birdied the 9th and 12th.
But alongside him, Watson was making a charge and things got interesting for a few moments when the two-time Masters champion went birdie, eagle, birdie, birdie, eagle, birdie from the ninth to leave the deficit at just two shots with four to play.
Niemann held a crucial birdie at the 15th before a Watson bogey on 16 put the gap out to four again and the leader could afford a closing bogey.
“I’m going to talk for the first two days because today I didn’t feel like I had my best. Yeah, it was great. I was able to flow on tough situations. I felt like today I was pretty calm, pretty chill, until Bubba started playing golf.
“Yeah, he made it tough for me. I was actually feeling the pressure on 13, 14, but, yeah, just stay in the present. Yeah, was able to hit a great shot on 15. After that put me back into my place.”
It was a thrilling 65 from Watson who claimed solo second a shot clear of Legion XII’s Caleb Surratt who secured his best finish of the campaign.
Surratt and Rahm both shot rounds of 65 to help Legion XIII overturn a three shot overnight gap to Torque GC and win the team title by eight shots on 35-under.
McKibbin carded a final round of 70 for a seven-under total on a day where the putts just didn’t drop but he still came away with $322,143 from his individual performance.
It’s also back to back titles for Legion XIII who have extended their lead at the top of the team standings ahead of the season ending team championship in a fortnight.
“The team is looking good, two wins in a row now,” said McKibbin. “We are starting to play some nice golf together and very consistent which makes for a very good score come the end of the week. If we can build on that for the last two events we’ll be looking good.”
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