Staff WriterOn a sun-baked afternoon at The Grange, the LIV Golf Adelaide Links circus set up the kind of Sunday showdown golf’s scriptwriters dream about – Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm, level after 54 holes, five clear of the field and about to go head-to-head in front of a packed, very noisy Australian gallery.
“Going to be a good battle tomorrow,” DeChambeau said. “We’re going to have some fun.”
“I hope it’s a banger,” Rahm said. “I hope we both have a good day, and may the best player win.”
You could almost hear the TV producers fainting with gratitude.
Two Titans, One Trophy
DeChambeau, captain of Crushers GC, and Rahm, the standard-bearer for Legion XIII, share the lead at 19 under par. Behind them, Anthony Kim is making his own movie at 14 under, the newest 4Aces signing turning his comeback into must-watch theatre.
Two home favourites from Ripper GC – captain Cameron Smith and Lucas Herbert – along with RangeGoats GC’s Peter Uihlein, sit at 13 under, six back. It’s a long way to climb, but this is the LIV Golf Adelaide cauldron, and the LIV Golf Adelaide Links layout has a nasty habit of turning comfortable leads into soap operas.
“It’ll be awesome,” said Smith, who posted an 8-under 64, tying for the lowest score of the day to move to 13 under. “I think given that the team is up there, the energy will be high again.”
The team picture is just as juicy. Rahm’s Legion XIII lead at -45, with the Rippers five shots back in second and 4Aces GC lurking at -38. Local pride versus the reigning team juggernauts – proper Sunday-afternoon theatre.
Bryson’s Birdie Blitz vs Rahm’s Spanish Fire
For a while on Saturday, it looked like DeChambeau was about to turn this into a one-man exhibition.
Rahm opened with two straight bogeys, looking more Ryanair than private jet. DeChambeau, meanwhile, settled himself with five tidy pars, then lit the boosters – a birdie at the par-3 sixth sparked a ridiculous run of eight birdies in nine holes. On a course playing firm and fiery, the Crushers captain was treating the LIV Golf Adelaide links-style setup like a pitch-and-putt.
Rahm simply couldn’t keep up. When the Spaniard bogeyed the par-5 13th – statistically the third-easiest hole of the day – he suddenly trailed by four and DeChambeau looked ready to disappear over the horizon.
At that point, Bryson was threatening to run away with the tournament, the sort of runaway that has fans checking flight times and captains pretending to care about “process”.
But Jon Rahm doesn’t really do quiet exits.
Rahm’s Wild Ride at 18
Rahm bounced back immediately with three straight birdies, grinding his way back towards DeChambeau’s shadow. Then came the madness at the last.
Rahm’s tee shot at the par-4 18th was miles left – again – finishing on the 10th teeing area for the second round in a row. With the grandstands blocking his direct line, he was granted TIO (temporary immovable obstruction) relief, a ruling that raised more than a few eyebrows, including the man he’s chasing.
Rahm, though, knew the play.
“I knew from yesterday, so I wasn’t too concerned, and knowing where I was going to drop, pretty good angle to that pin, as well,” the Legion XIII captain said. “It was actually the best spot to be pretty much for every single pin for that distance.”
From 75 yards, he promptly holed out for eagle. Just like that, DeChambeau’s four-shot cushion was gone and Rahm had turned the last five holes into a personal highlight reel: 5 under in five holes for a 6-under 66 and a share of the lead.
“Obviously executed it pretty well, and the rest is what you all saw,” Rahm said. “I’m not really expecting to make it. I’m hoping to hit it close but obviously ended up with the grand prize on that one.”
DeChambeau, who just an hour earlier had this thing by the scruff of the neck, made a rather sheepish par for a 64 – still tying the low round of the day, but suddenly feeling like the guy who brought a water pistol to a fireworks show.
“8-under is nothing to be ashamed of,” he said. “I played great today. I’m pretty proud of the way I handled myself. That was pretty sick seeing what Jon did on 18. I didn’t know you could go that far left and still have a clean lie and angle after that.”
He admitted the ruling itself left him baffled.
“I didn’t know that’s what could happen, so that was most of what the shock was,” DeChambeau said of the relief ruling.
Golf: the only sport where you can hit it on another hole and be told, “Great news, this might actually help.”
Anthony Kim: The Comeback Co-Star
As if Rahm vs Bryson at the top of the LIV Golf Adelaide Links storyline wasn’t enough, the third man in Sunday’s final group is Anthony Kim – and his script might be the most extraordinary of all.
Kim, who joined 4Aces GC this week after playing as a Wild Card during his 2024 return to professional golf, sits alone in third at 14 under. He wasn’t even in LIV Golf when Rahm and DeChambeau last shared a final group in Las Vegas two years ago. Now he’s right in the thick of the biggest regular-season event, alongside two of the sport’s biggest modern stars.
“It’s been a helluva week,” Kim said, who struggled to get into Australia after not having the proper paperwork when he left last week’s season-opener in Saudi Arabia.
“Obviously not having a visa to get into this country was a start. I’ve worked hard and I knew this day would come at some point.”
For Kim, just making it to the first tee has felt like its own small miracle.
“It was always the goal to be in the final group, giving yourself a chance to win a golf tournament, or else I wouldn’t have been practicing and playing on this league,” said Kim, making his first start this week as a member of 4Aces GC after previously playing as an independent Wild Card.
His presence has clearly resonated with the two men he’s chasing.
“What an incredible story,” DeChambeau said. “Going from the lowest of lows, almost moving away from this earth and then coming back and really taking accountability and raising his little girl and being a family man and being one percent better every day. It’s an inspiring story that I think honestly should have a lot more media attention than it does. It deserves that.
“It shows some of the opportunities that LIV Golf can provide and give hope to people. It’s another opportunity to play. I think that’s what’s so brilliant about it is you’ve got a guy like that that’s struggled pretty much his entire career, and this is really when he has become more of himself than any other time, more of a family man, a father, a great person that cares deeply about playing good golf now. That’s all he cares about, and he loves it. I think that’s really inspiring for anybody at any age, that you can pick it up and be a better person.”
Rahm has had a front-row seat to the comeback, too.
Added Rahm: “I was able to enjoy a car ride back to the hotel from the golf course in Riyadh … and he shared quite a bit of his story with me. What he’s doing is nothing short of remarkable. … I really hope he can find the right person to tell his story, however form, movie, documentary series, book, whatever it is, because what he’s doing is so impressive.”
Sunday’s final trio might be listed as a golf pairing sheet, but it feels more like a three-episode documentary.
Ripper Nation Roars at Home
Behind the headliners, the locals are trying to turn this into the biggest day Australian professional golf has seen in years.
Cameron Smith will start the final round six shots back and tied for fourth, an uncomfortable distance but not exactly hopeless on a course where trouble lurks faster than an online swing tip.
“They’re going to be hard to chase down tomorrow,” Smith said. “Anything can happen out there, though. It’s tricky. The greens get slick and firm. Anything can happen.”
His Ripper GC side trail Legion XIII by five in the team battle, a gap that can disappear quickly when all four scores count – even against a team that has dominated like Rahm’s.
“It’s not going to come easy. Being behind Legion, defending team champs, they’ve done it plenty of times before, so we need some of our best tomorrow.”
If there’s one thing in the Rippers’ favour, it’s the Adelaide crowd. They used that energy two years ago to win LIV Golf Adelaide in the league’s first-ever playoff, and the atmosphere around the LIV Golf Adelaide Links layout is once again closer to a festival than a golf tournament.
“It’s really epic, actually, particularly when I got off to a really hot start, and it seemed like the crowd just grew and grew and grew and the momentum was growing,” Smith said.
“A guy shouted out to me on the 17th tee, he said, ‘Fire up.’ I’m like, I don’t think I can fire up anymore. I think if I fired up anymore, my head would just explode. I was really out there on a mission today, and the momentum and the energy was so high that I really didn’t need any help. It was a pretty cool day.”
If the locals can will anything into existence, it’ll be a Rippers charge and a final-round dogfight at both the top of the individual and team leaderboards.
Stats Corner: Who Has the Edge?
Strip away the noise and you’re left with numbers, and the numbers say this:
- Individual leaderboard:
- T1 (-19) – Jon Rahm (68-63-66), Bryson DeChambeau (66-67-64)
- 3 (-14) – Anthony Kim (67-67-68)
- T4 (-13) – Peter Uihlein, Lucas Herbert, Cameron Smith
- T7 (-12) – Jason Kokrak, Branden Grace, Tyrrell Hatton, Ben Campbell
- T10 (-11) – Sebastián Muñoz, Scott Vincent
- Team leaderboard:
- 1 (-45) – Legion XIII (Surratt, Hatton, Rahm, McKibbin; a ridiculous -23 in Round 3)
- 2 (-40) – Ripper GC (Smith, Herbert, Smylie, Leishman; -18 in Round 3)
- 3 (-38) – 4Aces GC (Detry, Kim, Pieters, Johnson; -15 in Round 3)
Then there are the underlying trends that might decide this thing on Sunday over the LIV Golf Adelaide Links stretch:
- Victor Perez is leading Driving Distance with a 317.9-yard average and unleashed a 378.1-yard missile at 17.
- Ben Campbell is your fairway-finder-in-chief at 78.57% driving accuracy through three rounds.
- Anthony Kim is quietly leading Greens in Regulation at 81.48%, which is how you sneak into a final group without making a fuss.
- Cameron Smith is doing unholy things with the putter – 22 putts in Round 3 and just 75 across the week.
- Jon Rahm and Anthony Kim have made the fewest bogeys of the week – just one each. When the wind picks up and the adrenaline spikes, that kind of mistake-free golf wins trophies.
Add all that up, and you’ve got Rahm in full charge mode, Bryson unleashing a birdie barrage, and Kim hitting more greens than a driving-range picker.
“Hopefully We Can Give Them a Good Show”
Sunday in Adelaide now feels like an event, not just a final round. Rahm and DeChambeau share the lead. Kim is chasing the storybook ending. The Rippers are trying to overhaul the defending team champions in front of home fans who’ve turned the LIV Golf Adelaide Links atmosphere into something between a Test match and a rock gig.
“Hopefully we can give them a good show tomorrow,” DeChambeau said. “We’ll see how the cookie crumbles.”
If the first three days are anything to go by, that cookie isn’t crumbling so much as detonating – and 18 more holes of this might just be the wildest finish LIV Golf Adelaide has seen yet.
