Niemann wins LIV Golf Mexico City, Legion XIII takes team title

MEXICO CITY – Joaquin Niemann’s third victory of the season Sunday at LIV Golf Mexico City was not your average win. He rallied past two major champions. He won with his mother in attendance for the first time outside of his native Chile. He claimed the hearts of the local fans appreciating his Latin American roots.

Oh, and he earned an invite to the U.S. Open, thanks to the LIV Golf exemption he clinched with one tournament to go.

All in all, it was a pretty good day for the 26-year-old Niemann, LIV Golf’s youngest captain.

“Pretty hard to make it more special than this moment right now,” he said while drenched in celebratory champagne on the 18th green at Club de Golf Chapultepec.

RELATED: Final leaderboard | Updated standings

It was also a pretty good day for another Spanish-speaking captain, as Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII won a tight battle with the all-Australian Ripper GC to win their second trophy of the season and move to No. 1 in the season-long team standings. Legion XIII earned the hard-fought victory with all four players shooting under par. No other team on Sunday had more than two players under par.

“Proud of everybody here,” Rahm said. “To hear that all four of us shot under par is not easy. It’s a hard golf course.”

Niemann seemed to make it look easy this weekend, shooting 64-65 after an opening 68 on Friday. He started the final round three shots behind Rd. 2 leader Bryson DeChambeau, the Crushers GC captain, and two shots behind Ripper Captain Cameron Smith in the final group but outperformed both major winners, each of whom failed to break par on the par-71 layout.

Niemann took the lead for good after DeChambeau’s double bogey at the par-4 13th when he lost his tee shot out of bounds. Niemann then finished with a flourish with birdies in two of his last three holes to finish at 16 under.

DeChambeau’s 71 left him three strokes behind and tied for second with Ripper’s Lucas Herbert, who matched Rahm’s course record with a 10 under 61. Rahm finished in solo fourth at 12 under.

With the victory, Niemann extended his season-long points lead and guaranteed his exemption into the U.S. Open, no matter what happens next week at LIV Golf Korea, the final tournament before the exemption deadline. The Torque captain is now slated to play in the remaining three majors this season after already competing at last month’s Masters.

“My team was asking me to sign up for the qualifier and the sectional, and I wasn’t really into that,” Niemann said of the U.S. Open. “More than anything, I’m grateful that I’m not playing 36 holes on a Monday after the tournament.”

Smith drifted out of contention after failing to make a birdie through his first 14 holes, but his Rippers amazingly stayed in the hunt for their second consecutive tournament win thanks to Herbert, who played a 10-hole stretch in 8 under and had an outside chance at breaking 60 going into his final three holes.

But the one-man Aussie show could not compete with Legion XII’s steady contributors.

Rahm and teammate Tyrrell Hatton – paired in the same threesome with the Rippers’ Matt Jones – each shot 68 while Tom McKibbin birdied his last hole for a 70. Caleb Surratt, who was 4 under on his round before suffering four consecutive bogeys, provided decisive birdies for Legion XIII on his final two holes to shoot 69.

“I was proud of the way that I handled myself all week,” said the 21-year-old Surratt, LIV Golf’s youngest player. “Unlike maybe the other three guys here, I still feel like I have something to prove. I knew going into today that a good round could do just that.”

Legion XIII has now won six times since 2024 after becoming LIV Golf’s first expansion team; that ties for the second-most of any team. Niemann has five individual victories; that ties Brooks Koepka for the most of any player in league history.

“It’s special to be up there with Brooks for most wins,” Niemann said. “It’s just been three years since I joined here on LIV, and I feel like it’s a special place now for me to be here.”

TEAM SCORES

LIV Golf’s new scoring format this season now involves all four scores now counting in every round in the team competition. (Click here for more on the new format). Here are the final results and scores for each team after Sunday’s Rd. 3 of LIV Golf Mexico City.

1. LEGION XIII -28 (Hatton 68, Rahm 68, Surratt 69, McKibbin 70; Rd. 3 score: -9)

2. RIPPER GC -26 (Herbert 61, Smith 72, Leishman 74, Jones 75; Rd. 3 score: -2)

3. TORQUE GC -21 (Niemann 65, Muñoz 67, Ortiz 73, Pereira 77; Rd. 3 score: -2)

4. 4ACES GC -20 (Johnson 67, Pieters 68, Reed 72, Varner III 75; Rd. 3 score: -2)

5. CRUSHERS GC -15 (DeChambeau 71, Howell III 73, Lahiri 73, Casey 74; Rd. 3 score: +7)

6. SMASH GC -6 (Gooch 70, McDowell 71, Koepka 74, Kokrak 75; Rd. 3 score: +6)

7. STINGER GC -5 (Schwartzel 68, Oosthuizen 70, Grace 72, Burmester 74; Rd. 3 score: E)

8. FIREBALLS GC +4 (Puig 67, Masaveu 71, Ancer 72, Garcia 74; Rd. 3 score: E)

9. RANGEGOATS GC +5 (Watson 67, Uihlein 70, Catlin 71, Wolff 74; Rd. 3 score: -2)

10. HYFLYERS GC +9 (Steele 69, Ogletree 71, Mickelson 72, Tringale 73; Rd. 3 score: +1)

11. CLEEKS GC +14 (Bland 69, Kjettrup 71, Meronk 76, Kaymer 79; Rd. 3 score: +11)

12. MAJESTICKS GC +15 (Horsfield 71, Stenson 74, Poulter 75, Westwood 78; Rd. 3 score: +14)

13. IRON HEADS GC +25 (Kozuma 65, Jang 72, Na 72, Lee 73; Rd. 3 score: -2)

Wild Cards: C. Lee 74, Kim 77

ROUND 3 NOTES

HOW NIEMANN CLINCHED U.S. OPEN SPOT: In claiming the 40 points that goes to each LIV Golf individual tournament winner, Joaquin Niemann extended his season-long points lead. Of his 124.66 points this season, 120 have come in his three tournament wins (Adelaide, Singapore and Mexico City).

He now leads Jon Rahm by 30.3 points and Sergio Garcia by 46.66 points. With one final tournament left before the U.S. Open’s LIV Golf exemption is awarded next month, Niemann has guaranteed himself a spot for Oakmont in June.

The exemption goes to the leading points player not already exempt in the top 3 of the standings as of May 19. Rahm is the only player who can mathematically overtake Niemann with a win in next week’s LIV Golf Korea, and he already has a spot in the U.S. Open. Garcia doesn’t have a spot but is too far behind.

Niemann already is in the PGA Championship and Open Championship, so he’ll play all four majors this year for the first time since 2023. He becomes the 10th LIV Golf player expected to be in the U.S. Open field.

HERBERT’S 61: Ripper GC’s Lucas Herbert tied Jon Rahm’s course record at Club de Golf Chapultepec by shooting a bogey-free 10-under 61 that included one eagle and eight birdies. Rahm paid credit to the Australian for having a more challenging task.

“Today the golf course was harder than when I did it,” Rahm said. “When I did it, there was zero wind.”

Rahm had one hole-out when he shot 61 at the 2020 World Golf Championships event here. Herbert had two hole-outs on Sunday, including his eagle at the par-4 11th.

“He’s a phenomenal player and someone I look up to a lot,” said Herbert, “so to have my name next to his as a course record, that’s just really cool.”

Herbert’s performance kept his Ripper team in the mix for the team trophy, even with his teammates struggling to break par. Captain Cameron Smith shot a 1-over 72, Marc Leishman shot 74 and Matt Jones shot 75 as the Rippers finished second, two strokes behind winning team Legion XIII.

“There’s been a ton of times on Sunday I’ve played poorly, and the other boys have carried me,” Herbert said. “I could give you many examples of that. Feels like maybe I chalked one back up on the other side of things.”

Herbert needed birdies on his final two holes, the 14th and 15th, to break 60 but parred each one. “I just didn’t leave myself putts that were easy to be aggressive with the last two holes,” he said. “I did everything I could. I thought I played great golf.”

Herbert’s 10-under round ties for third lowest round, relative to par, in LIV Golf history, and ties for fourth in lowest score.

SURRATT DELIVERS LATE: It was a rollercoaster final round for Legion XIII’s young star Caleb Surratt, who was battling a queasy stomach on Sunday. He was a bogey-free 4-under through 10 holes, then gave it all away with bogeys on his next four holes. What had been a healthy six-shot lead for Legion XIII suddenly disappeared.

“I guess somebody else made a bogey or two, and the next thing you know we were tied,” Surratt said. “I was like, Oh my gosh, it’s my fault. Like it was all my fault.”

But much like he did in the team’s season-opening win in Riyadh, Surratt finished strong, delivering the decisive birdies on his final two holes to break the tie with Ripper. Tom McKibbin also finished with a birdie on his last hole, as Legion XIII overcame a five-stroke deficit to start the day to record their sixth win in team history.

“Really proud of Tom and Caleb for their finishing birdies,” said their captain Rahm.

RAHM'S STREAK CONTINUES: One of the most impressive and consistent accomplishments stayed alive in Mexico City. Rahm finished solo fourth and has never finished outside the top 10 in his 18 completed LIV events.

400-YARD DRIVES: Three drives of 400 yards or more were recorded in the final round, bringing the total for the week to 21 drives at that distance in the thin air of Mexico City’s 7,900-foot elevation. Bryson DeChambeau accounted for five of those 400+ yard drives.

Please note that not all drives are officially recorded under LIV Golf’s longest drives statistic, which measures two holes in each round.

List of 400-yard drives in the third round:

ROUND 3 STATS LEADERS

Driving accuracy: Sebastián Muñoz, 92.86% (13 of 14 fairways hit)

Driving distance (for measured holes 7 & 12): Bryson DeChambeau, 377.1 yards avg.

Longest drive (for measured holes 7 & 12): Joaquin Niemann, 404.5 yards, 12th hole

Greens in regulation: Joaquin Niemann, Bubba Watson, Brendan Steel, 88.89% (16 of 18 greens)

Scrambling: Sebastián Muñoz (5 of 5), Lucas Herbert (4 of 4), Thomas Pieters (3 of 3), Jinichiro Kozuma (3 of 3), Joaquin Niemann (2 of 2), Bubba Watson (2 of 2), 100%

Putting: Lucas Herbert, 1.33 putts per hole

Bogey-free rounds: Lucas Herbert (61), Bubba Watson (67), Sebastián Muñoz (67), Thomas Pieters (68)