Joaco Niemann (-16) has won again in LIV Golf. He has won again in Mexico. The Chilean golfer has achieved his third victory of the season in the Saudi league at the Club de Golf Chapultepec. Three in six tournaments played and five in just over a year. Play the music of the great Vicente Fernández. The Chilean, who suffered a new disappointment in the Majors at the last Masters, remains the absolute king of LIV.
Niemann secured victory at LIV Golf Mexico after defeating Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith, and Jon Rahm, among others, in the final round. What seems like doubts in the majors turns into certainties when he steps into Saudi ‘territory’. He won with a brilliant final round of 65 strokes, with seven birdies and a solitary bogey, sealing it with a sensational putt on the 18th hole. Indisputable. The next step in his career will be to transfer that dominance he shows in the Saudi league to the major events. In 23 majors, he hasn’t achieved a single top 10. He also didn’t finish in the top ten in any of the five WGCs he played or in his two appearances at THE PLAYERS.
Joaco, who already won this same tournament last year in Mayakoba, triumphed with a three-stroke lead over Lucas Herbert (-13), who delivered the round of the day and the tournament with 61 strokes, and Bryson DeChambeau (-13), who started as the leader and faced another Sunday disappointment with an insufficient par result. He seemed to have the tournament under control with a three-under-par through 12 holes, but a double bogey and a consecutive bogey on holes 13 and 14 knocked him down again, just like in Augusta. In this case, his big mistake on the 13th was losing the ball from the tee, ironically his best area this week.
Be that as it may, beyond this specific mishap, perhaps the most striking thing was that he couldn’t recover in the remaining holes. Not only did he make another bogey on the next, but he was also unable to add another birdie for the day.
Jon Rahm (-12) finished in fourth place with a final round of 68 strokes. He made five birdies and two bogeys. A good final round and another great week in LIV, although the bittersweet feeling is inevitable. The story repeats itself. There’s not much to criticize about the result, the final balance, but he really hasn’t managed to be truly in the fight for victory. It’s another week of yes, but no.
At least, the golfer from Barrika has the consolation of having achieved a new team victory. Legion XIII triumphed with a final score of -28, two strokes less than Cameron Smith’s Rippers. Precisely, the Australian was the big disappointment on Sunday. He started in the star match and finished fifth tied with a final round over par.
As for the rest of the Spaniards, David Puig (-6) delivered a notable final sprint in Chapultepec. He finished with a scorecard of 67 strokes to climb to 13th place. The player from La Garriga adds another interesting haul to remain in sixth position in the ranking. He has been surpassed by Herbert and DeChambeau, but in turn surpasses Burmester and Leishman. Rahm moves back to second place ahead of Sergio García.
Finally, Luis Masaveu (+1) and Sergio García (+9) were left out of the points.
