Adrian Meronk Wins LIV Golf Riyadh Wire to Wire Under the Lights

Adrian Meronk spent two nights making LIV Golf Riyadh look easy. Saturday night he had to prove he could win it when it got hard, and he did.

The Cleeks GC star closed with a 1-under 71 under the lights at Riyadh Golf Club to finish at 17-under 199 and win LIV Golf Riyadh by two shots, going wire to wire for his first title in the league. Jon Rahm, who shot 67 for the third straight night, and Sebastián Muñoz (71) tied for second at 15 under. Dean Burmester (65) and Lucas Herbert (70) shared fourth at 14 under. In the team competition, Rahm's Legion XIII never let anyone near it, finishing at 50 under and 11 shots clear of Ripper GC and RangeGoats GC.

Four Up, Then Wobbles

Meronk started the night two ahead of Muñoz and looked ready to make the final round a formality. Birdies at the first and eighth holes got him to 2 under for the night and stretched his lead to four at one stage.

Then the back nine started talking back. Meronk bogeyed the par-5 10th and the par-4 11th in succession, the kind of back-to-back stumble that turns a coronation into a contest. He lipped out a birdie chance at 13, and with Rahm and Muñoz both pushing, the cushion that looked safe a few holes earlier suddenly needed protecting.

Meronk did not pretend otherwise afterward. "I was nervous; I'm not going to lie," he said, per ESPN.

The Shot at 16

The answer came at the par-4 16th. From 167 yards, Meronk hit a short iron to four feet and converted the birdie, which gave him the breathing room he needed over the final two holes. Two pars later, he had his first LIV Golf title and, according to Golf Digest, a $4 million winner's check, the biggest payday of his career.

"The birdie on 16 was really huge," Meronk said, per Arab News. He called the win "super special" and admitted the finish turned into a fight.

The numbers back up how complete the week was. Meronk opened with a bogey-free 62 in which he hit every green, added a 66 on Friday with just 26 putts, and closed with a grinding 71. He moved to the top of the season standings with 40 points.

Rahm's Familiar Number

Rahm did his part to make Saturday interesting. The Legion XIII captain posted his third straight 5-under 67, this time with seven birdies and two bogeys, and two of those birdies came in his final six holes as he moved into a share of second. Three identical 67s made Rahm the steadiest player in the field, but steady was not quite enough against a leader who started the night six shots clear of him. Rahm was candid about the gap, saying each day he made about two big mistakes he felt were avoidable.

He was also not ready to declare the night-golf experiment a full success on one week's evidence. "One week doesn't really prove anything," he said, per ESPN.

Muñoz, who led the field in putting through 36 holes, had a far bumpier ride on Saturday. Six birdies and five bogeys added up to a 71, enough to hold a share of second but never enough to put real heat on Meronk. Herbert, solo third after Friday's 64, added a 70 to settle into a share of fourth, where Burmester joined him after charging home with a 65.

Legion XIII, Again

The team race was decided long before the final putt. Legion XIII entered Saturday with an 11-shot lead and finished with an 11-shot win, posting 50 under. Rahm's 67 led the way, with Tyrrell Hatton adding 70, Caleb Surratt 71 and Tom McKibbin 72. Under the new rule that counts all four scores every round, Legion XIII had the deepest roster in the field and played like it.

Rahm admitted the lead did the heavy lifting. "Luckily we had a nice cushion going into today and we could afford to not have our best day as a team," he said, per Arab News. Ripper GC and RangeGoats GC tied for second at 39 under.

Golf Digest notes it is Legion XIII's fifth team title since joining LIV as an expansion franchise last season, and ESPN points out that it is the team's second straight win in a season opener. Individually, Hatton tied for sixth at 13 under with Bryson DeChambeau, Sergio Garcia, David Puig and Marc Leishman.

What It Means for Meronk

This one carries extra weight given the road Meronk took to get here. He was the first Polish player to win on the DP World Tour, at the 2022 Irish Open, and the first Polish player in the Masters field. He won the 2023 Italian Open at the course that hosted that year's Ryder Cup and was still left off Luke Donald's European team. He joined LIV ahead of the 2024 season to play for Martin Kaymer's Cleeks GC and spent his first season in the league without a win.

That is over now, and the timing is useful. The USGA has introduced a U.S. Open exemption for the top LIV player in the season standings who is not already exempt, and Meronk just jumped to the top of that list. He said the U.S. Open, set for Oakmont in June, "is going to be on my goal list for sure," per Golf Digest.

LIV Golf opened its season with something it had never tried, an entire event under the lights. It closed with a first-time winner who had practiced night golf at home, held his nerve when the lead shrank and hit the shot of the night when it mattered most.

Read how the week unfolded in our Round 1 recap and Round 2 recap. LIV Golf's final-round recap (opens in a new tab) has the full team results.

Sources: LIV Golf (final-round recap), ESPN, Golf Digest, Arab News. More golf coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: Montana Pritchard/LIV Golf.