Staff WriterLIV Golf Mexico did not so much finish with a flourish as with a firm, unmistakable shove from Jon Rahm, who spent Sunday at Club de Golf Chapultepec playing like a man offended by the very idea of suspense. By the time the field had settled into the round, the Legion XIII captain had already done enough damage to turn a tight final day into a procession, then walked the rest of the route with the calm menace of someone locking every door behind him.
Rahm closed with a bogey-free 7-under 64, the lowest round of the day, to finish 21 under par and win by six shots over Fireballs GC’s David Puig. Legion XIII, never really under proper stress despite a late Fireballs push, added the team title by nine. By sundown, Rahm had not only claimed his fourth individual LIV Golf win since joining before the 2024 season, he had also moved to 16 LIV Golf trophies overall, one more than Bryson DeChambeau despite having played two fewer seasons.
That is not merely good form. That is a man turning up with a crowbar.
Rahm shut the door before anyone could reach the handle
The shape of this final round was decided early, and with rather indecent efficiency.
Rahm began the day two clear, opened with a par, then immediately set about wrecking everybody’s plans. At the 318-yard par-4 second, he drove the green and two-putted from 66 feet for birdie. At the 390-yard third, he did it again, only this time the tee shot finished inside three feet and the eagle was the golfing equivalent of signing for a parcel. Birdies at the fourth and fifth stretched the lead to six, and from there the tournament took on the feel of a chase in which one car had been fitted with a different engine.
“A little bit of disbelief,” said Rahm, who finished at 21 under just a week after a disappointing tie for 38th at the Masters. “If you would have told me last week on Thursday afternoon that I’d be winning by a six-shot margin this week, I would not have believed you because of how bad I played. Hell of an effort, and just what a Sunday.”
Tyrrell Hatton, Rahm’s teammate and one of the few players who began the day with a realistic chance, effectively lost his footing at the drivable second. A double bogey there left him scrambling after the train had already left the station. He eventually shot 72 and tied for fifth.
“Jon obviously played amazing today,” said Hatton, who shot a 1-over 72 to tie for fifth. “He got off to just a perfect start, and yeah, unfortunately for me it ended up being a difficult day.”
That was a polite way of putting it. When Rahm is driving par 4s at altitude and making the sort of clean, hard golf that leaves no fingerprints, difficult days tend to spread quickly to other people.
Puig gave chase, but Rahm had the answer
To his credit, David Puig did not blink.
The young Fireballs star came out firing, making birdies on three of his first four holes and adding an eagle at the par-5 seventh. When he birdied the 10th, Rahm’s lead was trimmed to three, and for a few minutes Chapultepec stirred with the possibility that Sunday might still have some teeth.
“I still think I had my chances, right, even with how good he started,” Puig said.
He was right. This was not a collapse by the field. Puig played beautifully and finished at 15 under for the best LIV Golf result of his career. The problem was simply that Rahm, once threatened, answered like a heavyweight. His 15-foot par save at the 10th after a wayward drive was the kind of moment that never looks especially glamorous on a card but often decides the day. He then birdied the par-5 12th while Puig dropped shots at the 13th and 15th, and that was that.
“That putt on the 10th hole was massive,” Rahm said. “It’s just a moment that the scorecard doesn’t show. That six-shot lead could have been three fast and maybe one or two coming down the stretch.”
That is the thing about big wins. They are rarely built only on the fireworks. Usually they depend on one putt, one recovery, one refusal to open the door.
Spain owned the podium and Legion XIII owned the team race
There was another story running alongside Rahm’s victory, and it had a distinctly Spanish accent.
Puig finished second. Josele Ballester finished third at 14 under after another punchy week, giving Spain a clean sweep of the individual podium. It was a reminder that Rahm is not merely operating as a lone star in LIV Golf but as the established figure in a very live, very talented Spanish wave.
“Seeing those two names up there, two friends, makes me want to beat them even more,” Rahm said of the young stars, “but also be cautious because I know exactly what they’re capable of.”
Puig was more expansive about the company he keeps.
“It’s just amazing to see us three in the top three,” Puig said. “Obviously we’re really good friends, all of us, and we see each other every week. Josele is kind of starting to get in that boat a little bit. But me and Jon, we spend, like, at least four or five days a week when we’re playing together and working out. It’s obviously great for me to have him around because he teaches me a lot of stuff.”
Rahm then delivered one of the better lines of the week.
“I think I spend more time with him than I do with my wife or my kids. Not surprised to see him up there.”
Ballester, who recovered from a ragged opening nine on Thursday to climb all the way to solo third, again showed that he has both nerve and horsepower.
“I didn’t feel that comfortable today, but I’m a great competitor, and I kind of kept it going and kept it interesting towards the end,” he said. “Just didn’t execute, didn’t feel that comfortable. Maybe right now it’s a lot of negatives, but yeah, it’s been a great week overall.”
Rahm’s appraisal of Ballester was equally telling.
“Josele, he is the one person that isn’t lacking in all kinds of firepower. Somebody so explosive yet so collected personality-wise is rare.”
While the individual podium told a Spanish story, the team contest belonged to Legion XIII. They began the day with a 19-shot lead and even though Fireballs charged late, the outcome never truly trembled. Rahm, Hatton, Tom McKibbin and Caleb Surratt finished at 45 under to claim the team title by nine over Fireballs GC, with Southern Guards third at 26 under. It was Legion XIII’s ninth regular-season team win, tying Crushers GC for the most in league history.
Chapultepec asked questions all week
Club de Golf Chapultepec did what good courses do: it let players look heroic one minute and mildly ridiculous the next.
At altitude, the place produced 21 drives of 400 yards or more across the week, including a 435.5-yard launch from Elvis Smylie on Sunday. Average driving distance was roughly 30 yards longer than any other tournament this season, while fairway accuracy fell to a season-low 48.9 percent. That is Chapultepec in a nutshell: tempting, thin-aired, and not remotely interested in making anyone feel fully comfortable.
It also produced the second-highest scoring average of any LIV Golf event this season and the most bogeys. Players could attack, certainly, but only if they were prepared to accept a little collateral damage. Rahm handled that tension better than anyone, playing the par 4s in 15 under for the week and making 25 birdies, more than anybody in the field.
Puig, Ballester, Thomas Detry, Matthew Wolff and Scott Vincent all left with strong weeks of their own, but Rahm was the only one who made the place look as though it had been built to suit his hands.
What this means for LIV Golf moving forward
The wider significance is not especially subtle.
Rahm now has two wins, three solo seconds and a solo fifth in the first six tournaments of the season as he charges toward what would be a third consecutive Individual Championship. In other words, the man who was already one of LIV Golf’s biggest names is now also its most decorated winner.
Elsewhere, the U.S. Open exemption chase tightened. Thomas Detry, thanks to his tie for fifth, moved into third in the season-long standings behind Rahm and DeChambeau and is currently in position to claim the berth awarded after Virginia. Puig, now sixth, and Ballester, now 10th, remain firmly in the hunt.
There was also a notable subplot involving DeChambeau, whose bid for a third consecutive LIV Golf title ended before Sunday began. The Crushers captain withdrew with a wrist injury after experiencing discomfort in the third round, halting one streak just as Rahm’s gathered even more force.
As for the hometown favourites, Carlos Ortiz and Abraham Ancer both fought back into the top 25 after slow starts, with Ancer especially appreciative of the response from the galleries.
“When things are not going your way, it’s tough to embrace it and really be happy, and you’re obviously just a little bit upset inside,” Ancer said. “But the crowd was phenomenal, and it was really good to see the amount of kids that came out, so that was really cool. I can’t wait for next year.”
LIV Golf Mexico will be back in 2027
That last line now carries a bit more weight, because LIV Golf has confirmed it will return to Mexico City in 2027.
The decision means 2027 will mark the fifth consecutive year LIV has competed in Mexico and the third straight year at Chapultepec, which is rapidly becoming one of the league’s most recognisable stages. That makes sense. The venue offers altitude-fuelled fireworks, a proper old-school championship feel, and a city big enough to absorb sport, music and spectacle without blinking.
So LIV Golf Mexico ends with Rahm holding both the individual trophy and the bigger conversation. He arrived in the wake of a poor Masters week, found his game almost immediately, then buried the field with a four-hole burst that felt like a warning to everybody else. Behind him came a Spanish podium sweep, another Legion XIII team title, and confirmation that Mexico City remains central to LIV’s plans.
For one week at least, Chapultepec belonged to Jon Rahm. The awkward part for everyone else is that it increasingly feels as though quite a lot of LIV Golf does too.
