Adrian Meronk secured his first ever win on LIV Golf League winning by two shots in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia after a tense final round in which he opened the door for the likes of Sebastian Munoz and Jon Rahm.
On the other hand, Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII spent the final round mostly in cruise control, their substantial lead never seriously threatened on the team leaderboard.
In the end, both Meronk and Legion XIII emerged as wire-to-wire champions in LIV Golf’s first tournament under the lights at Riyadh Golf Club.
The 31-year-old from Poland won his first individual title since joining LIV Golf League prior to last season, shooting a 1-under 71 to finish at 17 under, two strokes ahead of Rahm and Torque GC’s Sebastián Muñoz. Dean Burmester (Stinger GC) and Lucas Herbert (Ripper GC) tied for fourth at 14 under.
“Super special,” said Meronk, a former DP World Tour Player of the Year. “I was nervous all day. I played quite good in the beginning, then it was a fight at the end. But super happy that I crossed the line. It was very satisfying, definitely.”
However, the main headline coming from the event was the performance of Rahm’s Legion XIII team who strolled to the team title in Saudi Arabia.
They were seven shots ahead of any other team after the first round, and that gap just got wider after day two, with all four of their players in contention for the individual title with 18 holes to play. Legion XIII team posted a whopping 50 under par for the tournament, to win by 11 shots from Ripper GC and RangeGoats GC.
Legion arguably made the biggest player signing over the winter, with Tom McKibbin turning down a PGA Tour card to join Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton and Caleb Surratt. And they managed to send out a real message to the rest of the league with their performance in Riyadh.
Rahm, the defending LIV Golf Individual Champion was six shots back to start the day. He produced five birdies in a six-hole stretch early in his round and spent the back nine threatening to join the leaders. But he missed a 3-foot birdie putt at 15 that could’ve moved him to within a shot.
“I think I played good enough to win,” he said. “Obviously it just maybe wasn’t my week.” It was definitely his team’s week, though. Their dominance under the lights left no doubt.
TEAM SCORES
LIV Golf’s new scoring format made its debut this week, with all four scores now counting in every round in the team competition. Here are the final results and scores for each team after 54-holes at Riyadh Golf Club.
1. LEGION XIII -50 (Rahm 67, Hatton 70, Surratt 71, McKibbin 72; Rd. 3: -8)
T2. RIPPER GC -39 (Leishman 68, Jones 69, Herbert 70, Smith 70; Rd. 3: -11)
T2. RANGEGOATS GC -39 (Watson 68, Uihlein 68, Campbell 69, Wolff 72; Rd. 3: -11)
4. CRUSHERS GC -36 (DeChambeau 68, Casey 69, Lahiri 69, Howell III 74; Rd. 3: -8)
5. FIREBALLS GC -34 (Puig 65, Garcia 67, Masaveu 68, Ancer 74; Rd. 3: -14)
6. CLEEKS GC -28 (Kjettrup 68, Bland 70, Meronk 71, Kaymer 75; Rd. 3: -4)
7. TORQUE GC -27 (Muñoz 71, Ortiz 72, Niemann 73, Pereira 76; Rd. 3: +4)
T8. STINGER GC -25 (Burmester 65, Schwartzel 68, Oosthuizen 69, Grace 74; Rd. 3: -12)
T8. MAJESTICKS GC -25 (Horsfield 69, Poulter 71, Westwood 73, Stenson 74; Rd. 3: -1)
10. SMASH GC -23 (Kokrak 67, McDowell 68, Koepka 70, Gooch 71; Rd. 3: -12)
11. 4ACES GC -21 (Pieters 67, Varner III 68, Reed 71, Johnson 74; Rd. 3: -8)
12. HYFLYERS GC -18 (Tringale 65, Schniederjans 70, Steele 70, Ogletree 71; Rd. 3: -12)
13. IRON HEADS GC -11 (Lee 69, Ormsby 69, Jang 73, Na 75; Rd. 3: -2)
Wild Cards: Lee 71, Kim 72
