Jon Rahm makes quite an impact in his LIV Golf debut

Jon Rahm of Spain, the World No. 3, won the team event in his LIV golf debut. The 29-year-old golfer recorded a final total of 10 under par, tallying 203 strokes in the third round at the first LIV Golf Mayakoba tournament held at El Camaleon LIV Golf Course in Playa del Carmen, Mexico on Monday, securing a tie for third place in the individual competition.

Rahm finished two strokes behind Joaquin Niemann (Chile), who won with a final total of 12 under par, accumulating 201 strokes. Rahm made three consecutive birdies on holes 13 to 15 and initiated a last-minute chase. However, consecutive bogeys on the 17th and 18th holes caused him to fall short of winning the individual event. Nevertheless, Rahm joined the ‘Legion XIII’ team along with Tyrrell Hatton (England), Kieran Vincent (Zimbabwe), and Caleb Surratt (USA). In the team event, the team emerged victorious with a total of 24 under par, defeating the Crusher team, last year's final team championship winner, by four strokes. Rahm earned a total of USD 2 million in prize money from the individual competition (USD 1.25 million) and the team competition (USD 750,000) in this competition.

“If it had been any other competition, I would have been upset because of the poor finish, but I am very happy to have something to celebrate by winning the team event,

“ Rahm commented after the match. “This is why I moved to LIV Golf.” Rahm, who secured four victories on the PGA Tour last year, including the Masters, is known to have received a contract payment of up to USD 600 million and transferred to LIV Golf.


Hong-Gu Kang windup@donga.com