Joaquin Niemann Wins LIV Golf Mexico City as Legion XIII Steals the Team Title

Joaquin Niemann started Sunday as the third name in a three-man final group. By the end of the afternoon, the thin air of Mexico City belonged to him again.

The Torque GC captain closed with a 6-under 65 at Club de Golf Chapultepec to win LIV Golf Mexico City at 16-under 197, three shots clear of Bryson DeChambeau and Lucas Herbert. It is Niemann's third win in six LIV Golf events this season, after Adelaide and Singapore, and the fifth individual LIV title of his career, tying Brooks Koepka for the league record. The team title went elsewhere: Legion XIII erased a five-shot deficit and won at 28 under, two clear of Ripper GC.

The Steady Hand

Niemann began the day three behind DeChambeau and two behind Cameron Smith, and he went to work early. Three birdies in his first seven holes put him in the conversation, and birdies at the 10th and 12th kept the pressure on. His lone stumble came at the par-3 14th, the hole that bit him on Saturday too, where he made bogey.

By then the tournament had already swung. DeChambeau's tee shot at the par-4 13th went out of bounds, and the resulting double bogey handed Niemann a lead he never gave back. Niemann then birdied two of his final three holes, at the par-5 16th and the par-3 18th, to turn a tight finish into a comfortable one.

"Pretty hard to make it more special than this moment right now," Niemann said.

The family angle made it sweeter. "My mom came all the way," he said, per Reuters.

Bryson Stalls, Smith Goes Cold

For two days DeChambeau bent Chapultepec to his will. On Sunday the scoring dried up. He shot an even-par 71, and the double at 13 was the moment the wire-to-wire bid ended. He still finished tied for second at 13 under, a strong week by any normal measure, but another chance at a first individual LIV Golf win since 2023 slipped away.

Smith had it worse. The Ripper GC captain, one shot back to start the day, did not make a birdie through his first 14 holes and signed for a 1-over 72. Smith finished tied for fifth at 11 under alongside Tyrrell Hatton, who closed with a 68.

Jon Rahm took solo fourth at 12 under after a 68. The reigning individual champion has now finished inside the top 10 in all 18 LIV Golf events he has completed.

Herbert Nearly Breaks 60

The round of the week came from a player who started the day out of the picture. Herbert, also on Ripper GC, went bogey-free with an eagle at the par-4 11th and eight birdies for a 10-under 61, tying the Chapultepec course record held by Rahm. Pars at the 14th and 15th were the difference between a 61 and something historic.

"Just one of those rounds where everything comes together," Herbert said, per Reuters. He was honest about the closing stretch, too. "I just didn't leave myself putts that were easy to be aggressive with the last two holes," he said.

Rahm, for his part, gave the course record its due. "Today the golf course was harder than when I did it," he said.

Legion XIII Steals the Team Title

The team race was supposed to be a Ripper GC story. Smith's team led by two after Saturday and got the best individual round of the event from Herbert. It still was not enough. Smith shot 72, Marc Leishman 74 and Matt Jones 75, and with all four scores counting, Ripper managed just 2 under for the day and finished at 26 under.

Legion XIII went the other way, posting the best team round of the day at 9 under, with no card worse than 70. Rahm and Hatton each shot 68, Caleb Surratt shot 69 and Tom McKibbin shot 70. It was not a smooth ride. Surratt was bogey-free through 10 holes, then made four bogeys in a row before birdies on the last two.

"I guess somebody else made a bogey or two, and the next thing you know we were tied," Surratt said.

The win is Legion XIII's second of the season and its sixth since joining the league in 2024. "Proud of everybody here," Rahm said.

Torque GC finished third at 21 under, as Niemann's 65 and a 67 from Sebastián Muñoz offset a 77 from Mito Pereira. 4Aces GC was fourth at 20 under behind a 67 from Dustin Johnson. Crushers GC, second after two rounds, went 7 over on Sunday and fell to fifth at 15 under.

Niemann's Season, Niemann's Majors

The win brings 40 points and lifts Niemann to 124.66 for the season, 30.3 clear of Rahm. More importantly, per LIV Golf, it locks up a U.S. Open exemption for Oakmont in June. Niemann was already in the PGA Championship and The Open, so he will play all four majors this year for the first time since 2023. He also won in Mexico last year, at Mayakoba, which makes this country a happy hunting ground.

LIV Golf Korea is next, and Niemann heads there as the league's hottest player by a distance. Rahm will be chasing, and so will a Legion XIII team that just proved a five-shot hole on Sunday is not much of a hole at all.

Look back at the week with our Round 1 recap and Round 2 recap. Full final-round details are in LIV Golf's tournament recap (opens in a new tab).

Sources: LIV Golf (final-round recap), AP, Reuters. More golf coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: LIV Golf.