Jon Rahm’s First LIV Event: A Closer Look

Jon Rahm teed off at LIV Mayakoba, his shorts enabling us to witness his enormous legs turn through the opening shot with the sounds of Bad Bunny in the background. He started as we all expected, with a barrage of birdies that meant he was seven under par stood on the 17^th tee. A bogey bogey finish led to a 66, but Legion XIII looked strong.

The team was scrabbled together last minute, too.

Tyrell Hatton signed a week ago with LIV Golf, joining his Ryder Cup teammate Rahm once again. Teenager Caleb Surratt is a sophomore at the University of Tennessee, living in his dorm in January and being sprayed in the face with champagne a month later. Kieran Vincent came through with a -2 score of 69 on the Saturday, but struggled to +3 overall. He won’t mind, after cashing his 25% share of the $3,000,000 team prize.

Jon Rahm just finished bogey, bogey to miss out on the individual win and was clearly fuming. But he recomposed himself in the interview when it came to praising his team. It’s really compelling to watch how he can do that. Maybe the team does mean something to these guys? pic.twitter.com/cYFcUVFFfE

— Flushing It (@flushingitgolf) February 4, 2024

Rahm captained his side well, shooting 10 under over three rounds. He was two shy of the eventual playoff between Joaquin Niemann and Sergio Garcia, which took place in the dark going down the last, The luminous scoreboard by the green proved useful as the green was lit by all means possible, like Tiger at Firestone.

Check it out here.

With Hatton’s -7 on Saturday, the four scores from Rahm’s side put them at -14 for the day and -24 for the tournament, winning the team portion overall.  Despite Niemann taking home the individual prize, his team finished 3^rd overall, with Carlos Ortiz and fellow Chilean Mito Pereira finishing almost dead last overall for Torque GC.

The fact that Pebble Beach was unplayable on the Sunday meant that more eyes were on LIV, with golf Twitter dialled in to the eventual playoff. Almost a two-shot swing in marketing terms, with an exciting playoff as well as golf fans having no PGA Tour event to watch. Rahm has hit the ground running in his first outing as General of Legion XIII, and we’re confident it wont be his only silverware collected this year.

Cover Image via Golfweek