Jon Rahm (64 strokes) closed the most turbulent week in the history of LIV Golf, making headlines with the victory in the successful stage in Mexico, where there was bustle on the last day on a day of heat and little wind. The leader of the Legion What has never been seen since the first tournament in 2022 when South Africa did it. The three golfers also graduated from Arizona State, a university that is a superlative breeding ground for national golf.
The victory is the second achieved this seasonthe same ones that the league’s other megastar, Bryson DeChambeau, has this year, who claimed a wrist injury to not play the last day of the sixth stop of LIV Golf. It is the Basque’s fourth victory on the circuit promoted, at least until the end of the season, by the Saudi Public Fund. It is the twenty-fourth victory of his career. (Results)
“If they told me on Thursday of the Masters after 78 that I was going to win by six shots that week I wouldn’t have believed it coming. In general I have done everything well this week, especially with the short game and although it seems easy I made many putts at critical moments,” said the winner, who completed the best Sunday round of the 57 competitors.
Puig and Ballester were the first two to move. Taking advantage of their violent hits, they converted the initial par 4s in par 3s, hunting the starting greens. Seeing them in high fields like Chapultepec (2,300 meters above sea level) is a spectacle. The one from la Garriga went out at full speed for his neighbor in Arizona, with whom he usually trains. In four holes, he had three birdies. That’s why the Fireballs had achieved something impossible in the early stages: the 15 hits that the XIII Legion had taken after Saturday had been reduced to 7.
Josele Ballester (22) plays a driver
But Rahm is not far behind in going far and on the 3rd, his driver put him less than half a meter from the hole with the tee. Eagle. Gap of four. Everything in order. The one from Barrika was very focused. He played alongside Tyrrell Hatton, who has become his close friend. “But we know what we’re involved in and, of course, it’s not talked about as much as in other circumstances,” he had warned. In three holes he was six strokes ahead of the Englishman. There was then more space for talks. Only Jon could lose the tournament.
Rahm chased away the ghosts forever when on the 4th hole (par 3), a three-meter putt, With a fall from right to left he entered the entire center. Five margin over the Spanish duo. In Adelaide he saw how Anthony Kim came back, but it was not going to happen in Chapultepec, a course that handles it wonderfully. In 2020 he threw 61 shots and the record still stands as a record. Just at that moment, Luis Masaveu, the revelation golfer in Mexico, sent two balls into the water on the 7th (par 5). The triple bogey condemned him cruelly. He finished with par and twelfth, the best performance in his appearances on the circuit.
For the Barrika golfer it was about passing holes like the one who removes pages from the calendar wishing to make it to the end of the month. But Jon always wants to transcend. He made another birdie on the 5th from four meters to mark five under par in as many holes. I was sweet and dreamed of all the records. He didn’t achieve them, but he ended up with an immaculate Sunday card, without bogeys.
Puig was encouraged to be second. An eagle, to also place -5 after 7 holes, was a boost. The 24-year-old from Barcelona confirmed that he will enter the PGA Championship, the second major of the year. He is a golfer who is on the threshold of doing something very famous. He hits well and kicks well. He has polished the mistakes that previously hindered him. On the 10th hole he was three strokes behind the champion.
David Puig (24), on the last day
The captain of the XIII Legion, meanwhile, completed the first nine holes in five under par, the section in which the sum of the two previous days reflected a +1. Doing it on Sunday increased the value of what was achieved. At that point I had hit all the greens in regulation. He missed the 10th, but saved it with a six-meter putt, and the subsequent statistics were no longer as accurate.
Rahm collected pars, up to six, Puig stopped with a bogey on 13, and Ballester, meanwhile, made one from outside on the 11th and made another birdie to get on a roll. Although the putt at the end took him out of a second place that he deserved. On Spain’s national day, even Sergio García had a notable resurrection. Sunday’s 68, despite a final bogey, will have an important therapeutic effect for the 2017 Augusta Masters champion.
The Rahm of 2026, despite Augusta National, the LIV Golf of the Year with world ranking scores for the first time, rules with an iron fist. Two victories, three second places and one fifth. The title in Mexico will allow him to get back into the top 25 of that classification. He needs to do well in a major, with the PGA in May as the next event. So that no one doubts that he is one of the three best golfers on the planet.
