Robert TheodorsonJoaquin Niemann has made winning on LIV Golf look almost routine, and at LIV Golf New York he added another trophy to a collection that is beginning to require its own postcode.
Niemann, now a nine-time LIV Golf winner, went wire-to-wire at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, extending his own record for individual victories on the LIV Golf circuit.
For Niemann, the tournament was a tale of two halves: two dominant rounds (64, 65) in which only Lee Westwood and Harold Varner III could hope to keep pace, followed by two rounds (70, 69) of treading water while avoiding the sort of collapse Bedminster is perfectly capable of producing.
It was an unusual weekend for the Chilean superstar, but ultimately it was Niemann — and Niemann alone — who best mastered what has traditionally been one of LIV Golf’s more unforgiving courses.
Throughout an entertaining and tight four days of golf, the tournament was effectively decided on Niemann’s eagle putt on the par-5 15th, where Joaco pushed his advantage over HV3 to three strokes.
Niemann’s 16-under-par cumulative score secured his ninth win since joining the league in August 2022, further extending a LIV Golf record that already puts considerable daylight between him and the rest of the field.
For Westwood and HV3, it was a finale filled with thoughts of what might have been.
The 53-year-old Westwood remained within striking distance of what would have been his first LIV Golf tournament victory for much of the week. In doing so, Westwood also gave his Majesticks team a genuine shot at making the Top 3 on the team podium.
Inevitably, as has often been the case over the past several years, both challenges faded on championship Sunday. Fortunately for Westwood on the individual front, his T3 finish at 9-under par represented another of his strongest LIV performances, following his solo third-place finish in Singapore earlier this season.
Harold Varner III, the former East Carolina Pirate and winner of LIV DC back in 2023, had to settle for second place at 13-under, three strokes behind Niemann, after having several genuine opportunities to unseat the Chilean from his perch at the top of the leaderboard.
While Westwood has already enjoyed a storied and historic career, the question facing Varner is the same one facing plenty of players across LIV Golf: what comes next?
It’s a question that will need to be answered in the months and years to come, but for now Varner at least gets to leave Bedminster with a runner-up finish and a little extra prize money.
On the team front, a rubber match evolved between the teams of two of LIV’s biggest stars: Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm.
While both men horribly underperformed throughout the week — DeChambeau finishing T38 at 7-over and Rahm T41 at 8-over — their respective teams were aided by Paul Casey (T6; 6-under par) and Tom McKibbin (T6; 6-under par).
Ultimately, it was Bryson’s Crushers that got the better of Rahm’s Legion XIII by two strokes, with Crushers finishing at 6-over compared with Legion XIII at 8-over.
By virtue of his position in the season-long points standings, Jon Rahm won his third consecutive LIV Golf Individual Championship.
Rahm has now won the season championship in every season he has been a member of LIV Golf: 2024, 2025 and 2026.
Previous winners include Talor Gooch in 2023 and Dustin Johnson in 2022.
