Jon Rahm Wins LIV Golf Hong Kong to End an 18-Month Drought as 4Aces GC Take the Team Title

For a year and a half, Jon Rahm kept arriving at the finish line and watching someone else break the tape. On Sunday at Fanling, he finally got there first, and he did it with room to spare.

Rahm shot a 6-under 64 in the final round of LIV Golf Hong Kong to win at 23-under 257, three shots clear of Thomas Detry. Thomas Pieters finished alone in third at 19 under, Harold Varner III fourth at 18 under and Matthew Wolff fifth at 17 under. It is Rahm's third LIV Golf individual title and his first since LIV Golf Chicago in September 2024. In the team competition, 4Aces GC stormed past Smash GC to win at 58 under, six shots clear, for the team's first title since London in 2023.

Peak Rahm, Holes 13 to 16

Rahm started Sunday in a three-way tie with Detry and Varner and wasted little time. The Legion XIII captain birdied four of his first eight holes, gave one back at the ninth and was clinging to a one-shot lead over Pieters, playing in the group ahead, through 13 holes.

Then came the stretch that decided it. At the 14th, Rahm hit a gap wedge from 90 yards to seven feet and converted the birdie. Around the same time, Pieters bogeyed the 15th, and the two-shot swing broke the tournament open. Rahm said afterward that his swings from the 13th through the 16th were about as good as he can make them, calling that run peak Jon Rahm.

By the time he stepped onto the 18th tee, the lead was five. An errant shot there cost him a bogey and some style points, and Detry birdied the hole to trim the final margin to three, but nobody was going to catch him. Rahm finished with eight birdies against two bogeys.

"Very relieved, just happy I could enjoy the walk down the 18th," Rahm said, per Reuters.

The End of the Near Misses

The relief was earned. Rahm had gone 26 straight worldwide starts without a win, matching the longest drought of his career, and he had finished second in both of his previous 2026 starts, including a one-shot loss to Elvis Smylie at LIV Golf Riyadh and a runner-up behind Anthony Kim at LIV Golf Adelaide, where Rahm held the 36-hole lead. His 21st straight round under par this week also matched his own league record.

The week meant more than a trophy. Before a ball was struck, Rahm helped arrange a private flight to get seven LIV players and a caddie out of the Middle East after conflict closed the airport in Dubai. Detry was one of them, and Detry spent Sunday chasing the man who got him to Hong Kong. Rahm also collected the $4 million winner's check, per Irish Golf Desk.

Detry and Pieters Carry the Belgian Flag

Detry's 67 locked up solo second, and he led the field in strokes gained putting for the week. Pieters followed his Saturday 61 with a 66 to claim solo third, his first individual podium in the league. The only thing that slowed him down was the man in the group behind.

"Obviously I can't control the fact that Jon is unbelievable at golf," Pieters said.

Varner, sharing the lead at the start of the day, could not find Saturday's magic and shot 69 to finish fourth, though his 24 birdies for the week were the most of his LIV Golf career. Wolff closed with a 65 to grab fifth, his first top-five finish since LIV Golf Miami in 2024. Carlos Ortiz, the first-round leader after his 60, shot 69 to finish sixth, and Dean Burmester's 70 left him seventh.

4Aces Finally Cash In

The team race flipped on Sunday. Smash GC started the day two shots clear, but 4Aces got all four players under par in the final round: Dustin Johnson's 65, Kim's 66, Pieters' 66 and Detry's 67 combined for 16 under. Kim's birdie at the 17th put 4Aces in front for good, and Detry's closing birdie stretched the gap.

The final count was 58 under, six better than Smash GC at 52 under, with Rahm's Legion XIII third at 51 under after a 10-under final round. Southern Guards GC and Torque GC tied for fourth at 48 under.

For 4Aces, the drought was 974 days long. The franchise that dominated the league's early years had not won a team event since London in June 2023, and Johnson sounded like a captain who had been waiting a long time to say it.

"To finally get a win after a few years without having one, very proud of the guys," Johnson said.

A Week That Gave Everything

Hong Kong Golf Club handed out red numbers all week. Ortiz opened with a 60, Rahm and Pieters went 62 and 61, and only Sam Horsfield finished the 72 holes over par, tying the league record for fewest players over par in an event. The difference at the end was that Rahm, after so many weeks of good enough, played the best golf on the day that counted most.

With the drought over, Rahm heads into the rest of the season without the question that followed him for 18 months.

Revisit the week with our Round 1, Round 2 and Round 3 recaps, and find full details in the LIV Golf final-round recap (opens in a new tab).

Sources: LIV Golf (final-round recap), Reuters via Arab News, Golf Monthly, Irish Golf Desk, The Golf News Net. More golf coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: Charles Laberge/LIV Golf.