Spain’s Jon Rahm on Sunday captured his second consecutive LIV Golf season crown, shooting an 11-under par 60 before losing a playoff to Colombia’s Sebastian Munoz at LIV Golf Indianapolis, Indiana.
Munoz birdied the first playoff hole to beat Rahm for the Indy title after both finished on 22-under 191 through all 54 holes at Chatham Hills in the Saudi Arabia-backed series’ last individual event of the year.
“First time I’ve ever beat him, so really proud of that and happy I got to go home with the trophy,” Munoz said.
Photo: Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images/USA Today
However, Rahm’s result, a second playoff loss in as many weeks, was enough to edge Chile’s Joaquin Niemann in the season points chase for the second year in a row, delivering heartbreak on the campaign’s last day as he did last year.
“Still slightly bittersweet,” Rahm said. “I know I’m supposed to be happy. It’s a great moment, but it just doesn’t feel great to finish the year losing two playoffs.”
“I’m sure over time I’ll get over that, and I really appreciate what I’ve done this year,” he said.
Rahm won the season title without winning any LIV event while Niemann took titles this year in Adelaide, Australia; Singapore; Mexico City; Virginia and the UK.
“It sucks,” Niemann said. “I started playing my best golf on the back nine, which I’m proud of, but at the end of the day, the putts didn’t drop, and it wasn’t enough. It’s kind of hard to swallow.”
Rahm, a Masters and US Open champion, was not overjoyed about a season crown without a win all year.
“To be able to win the season without actually winning a tournament, I know eventually I’ll be proud of that. Right now, it’s slightly more something I’m going to suffer over a little bit more, and it may never be replicated,” Rahm said.
“You need a lot of coincidences to go on exactly with the year Joaquin had. He’s won five times. He has played incredible golf. One could argue he was probably the more deserving guy to win this,” he said. “But we have the points system we have and somehow, I don’t know how, I managed to pull through and get it done.”
Rahm captured US$18 million for claiming the season crown with Niemann taking US$8 million for his runner-up season finish after sharing fourth at Indy on 196 with a closing 66.
Munoz, who battled two-time major winner Dustin Johnson for the lead most of the day, birdied the 17th and 18th holes in regulation and the 18th again in the playoff to win his first title since the 2019 PGA Tour Sanderson Farms Championship.
“We came today to try and take care of business,” Munoz said. “Of course, Jon shot 10-under, so you go from one legend to another one. It was pretty cool. Awesome experience. Making birdie two times in a row [at 18], it’s undescribable.”
Munoz battled for the victory after firing a 59 on Friday, only the third sub-60 round in LIV history.
“I feel really proud of myself,” he said. “It has been a long time coming, six years since my last win, and it’s awesome right now.”
A severe overnight storm toppled trees and swamped fairways, delaying the shotgun start by 55 minutes, with players using lift, clean and place rules on the rain-softened course.
England’s Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter avoided being dumped from LIV next year, finishing in the season’s top 48 in points to escape the relegation zone.
Westwood birdied four of his first five holes while Poulter birdied four of his last five to avoid the drop, each finishing on 201.
However, Sweden’s Henrik Stenson was dropped after missing a birdie putt at the 18th that would have seen him avoid relegation at Poulter’s expense.
Niemann’s Torque won the Indy team title, it is first triumph since 2023, but Rahm’s Legion XIII hold the top seeding for next week’s LIV Team Championship.
Wilyer Abreu watched the ball leave the park and tossed his bat high in the air. His Venezuela teammates streamed out of the dugout in celebration. The comeback was on and the win over the reigning World Baseball Classic (WBC) champion Japan was within reach. Japan, their 11-game WBC winning streak on the line, held a 5-4 lead in the sixth inning of Saturday’s thrilling quarter-final matchup when Abreu put his team ahead with the biggest swing of the game: a three-run shot off Hiromi Itoh that sent the loanDepot Park crowd into a passionate roar and helped seize Venezuela’s 8-5
A BREATHLESS BATTLE: France clinched the championship in a vicious back-and-forth match with England, denying Ireland the title by just a few points France won back-to-back Six Nations titles after beating England 48-46 on a last-second penalty-kick by Thomas Ramos in a thriller for the ages on Saturday. England scored their seventh try in the 77th minute and converted for 46-45. If the score held for a few more minutes, Ireland would have been crowned the champion. But France pressed yet again with 14 men, lost possession, regained it, and earned two simultaneous penalties after the fulltime siren. Captain Antoine Dupont debated with referee Nika Amashukeli where the penalty spots were. Ramos, who did not miss a goal-kick all night, finally lined up his seventh
Home runs are greeted with a celebratory shot of espresso and the donning of an Armani jacket. Victories are marked with bottles of red wine while the soaring voice of opera singer Andrea Bocelli echoes through the locker room. Welcome to baseball, Italian-style. Written off as 80-1 underdogs before the World Baseball Classic started, Italy’s fairytale tournament has carried them all the way to today’s (Taipei time) semi-finals in Miami against Venezuela. On Saturday, Italy — who scored a stunning upset of a star-studded US lineup during the pool phase — kept their unbeaten campaign alive with a nail-biting 8-6
Kimi Antonelli became Formula 1’s second-youngest race winner with a composed drive to victory for Mercedes in an eventful Chinese Grand Prix yesterday. The 19-year-old Italian was the youngest pole position starter and briefly lost the lead to Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari at the start, but retook it soon after and was in control after that. “We did it! We did it!” Antonelli shouted to his team on the radio amid laughs and whoops. It was another 1-2 finish for Mercedes to start the season as Antonelli’s teammate George Russell came through a battle with both Ferraris to finish second. Lewis Hamilton was
RSS