For Jon Rahm, it was 539 days without an individual tournament win. For Dustin Johnson’s 4Aces GC, it was 974 days without a team win.
Both droughts ended Sunday with impressive performances at HSBC LIV Golf Hong Kong.
Rahm, the Legion XIII captain and the league’s most consistent player, put the finishing touches on a dominant performance at Hong Kong Golf Club with a six-under 64 for a three-stroke victory at 23 under. It comes after consecutive runner-up finishes in the first two LIV Golf tournaments this season and ends a personal winless stretch that had lasted since his previous league win in the regular-season finale in Chicago in September 2024.
“Very relieving,” said Rahm, the league’s reigning two-time Individual Champion. “That’s the only way I can describe it. I’ve been very ecstatic for wins in the past. This one just feels like a big weight off my shoulder. That’s all I can say.”
Starting Sunday as one of the three co-leaders with Thomas Detry and Smash GC’s Harold Varner III, he birdied four of his first eight holes, then gave a shot back with a bogey at the ninth.
Through 13 holes, he was just one stroke ahead of Pieters, who was playing in the group ahead. But Rahm’s approach shot with a gap wedge from 90 yards at the 14th left him with a 7-foot birdie putt. He rolled that in while Pieters bogeyed the 15th, a two-shot swing that proved decisive down the stretch. He teed off at the 18th with a five-shot lead.
“It’s very fun when you can stand on that podium and celebrate with your teammates,” Rahm said about Legion XIII’s success since his last win. “But as far as obviously being a competitor and as myself goes, I wanted to get this done. It feels different. I think I would be way more ecstatic if I was celebrating with my teammates for the win, like the Aces did today, but there’s a sense of self-accomplishment and pride that goes with doing it myself.”
4Aces GC was the dominant team in the early years of LIV Golf, winning four times in the regular season and then the Team Championship in the inaugural year of 2022, followed by two more wins the next season, including London in June 2023.
That was the team’s last victory, and since then the roster has undergone several changes, including two new additions this year with Detry and Anthony Kim joining Johnson and Thomas Pieters, renewing hope that the team could return to its glory days.
The 4Aces finished third in each of the first two tournaments this year, and Kim broke through with an individual win in the previous tournament in Adelaide last month. But on Sunday, they celebrated as a team, shooting a collective 16 under with Johnson leading the way with a 65, Kim and Pieters shooting 66 and Detry with a 67 for a six-stroke victory over Smash GC.
“To finally get a win after a few years without having one, very proud of the guys,” Johnson said. “Obviously, we have a completely new team, but I think we have a very strong team. I’m very happy with them.”
Graeme McDowell, who celebrated his 15th-career hole-in-one on Friday, birdied his final hole of the week – the par-5 third – to climb into a share of eighth place. The Portrush man birdied the seventh, then eagled 13 and birdied 14 to get to four-under for his round, but a bogey on 15 killed his momentum and the birdie on the last came after five consecutive pars.
Still, it’s his highest finish of the season and lifts him into the top 20 in the season rankings.
Tom McKibbin was motoring well having birdied four of his first nine holes and pushed his way into the top five, but a run of four bogeys in five holes proved costly to his own chances and to Legion XIII’s hopes of another team victory, and a final bogey on his closing hole saw him slip into a tie for 24th at the end of the week.
Leave a comment