Jon Rahm captured his first individual tournament win since September 2024 on Sunday, carding a 64 for a three-stroke victory at LIV Golf Hong Kong.
Tied with Harold Varner III and Belgium’s Thomas Detry entering the round, Rahm took over on the back nine with birdies on four consecutive holes, giving himself enough cushion to withstand a bogey at No. 18. His final round put him at 23-under for the event at Hong Kong Golf Club in Fanling.
Also breaking a long title drought was the Dustin Johnson-led 4Aces, who grabbed their first team win in 974 days with their 58-under showing.
Rahm started the season with back-to-back runner-up finishes before hoisting the Hong Kong trophy.
“Very relieving,” said Rahm, who has won the past two season-long individual titles. “That’s the only way I can describe it. I’ve been very ecstatic for wins in the past. This one just feels like a big weight off my shoulder. That’s all I can say.”
Detry shot a 67 on Sunday to finish 20-under and in sole possession of second place. Fellow Belgian Thomas Pieters (66) was a stroke behind Detry in third place, and Varner (69) finished in fourth at 18-under. Matthew Wolff (65) was fifth.
With the victory, Rahm snapped a streak of 26 events without an individual win, despite the success of his Legion XIII team.
“It’s very fun when you can stand on that podium and celebrate with your teammates,” Rahm said. “But as far as obviously being a competitor and as myself goes, I wanted to get this done. It feels different. I think I would be way more ecstatic if I was celebrating with my teammates for the win, like the Aces did today, but there’s a sense of self-accomplishment and pride that goes with doing it myself.”
The 4Aces won the team championship in 2022 and two event titles in 2023 but hadn’t managed a win since. But buoyed by Detry and Pieters — along with solid finishes by Johnson and Anthony Kim — this week was different.
The group was 16-under on Sunday, led by a 65 from Johnson and a 66 from Kim.
“It’s been a while since we’ve won, especially with the way we started, dominating, pretty much winning every single event, or if we didn’t win, we were finishing second for the first couple years,” Johnson said.
“Obviously since then, LIV as a whole, the players have gotten a lot stronger, a lot better. The teams have gotten stronger. So it’s a lot harder to win. That’s a little bit of a factor. I think this year we’ve put together a really good team, so I think we’re going to be competing each and every week. So, I’m very happy with that.”
–Field Level Media
