Michael La Sasso Wins LIV Golf Indianapolis, Becoming the League's Youngest Champion as Legion XIII Repeat

The final hole of LIV Golf's fifth season came down to a 22-year-old rookie, a chip from 20 yards and a tap-in. Michael La Sasso did not blink, and the youngest player in the league walked off as its youngest champion.

La Sasso closed with a bogey-free 5-under 65 at The Club at Chatham Hills to win LIV Golf Indianapolis at 18-under 262, one shot ahead of Jon Rahm, who fired the joint low round of the day, a 63. Bryson DeChambeau (64) and Sergio Garcia (65) tied for third at 16 under. In the Team Championship, Rahm's Legion XIII shot 10 under on Sunday to finish at 44 under and win by six over HyFlyers GC, defending the team title they won a year ago.

Eighteen Greens, No Mistakes

La Sasso arrived in Indiana with one top-30 finish and no top-10s on LIV this season. He left with rounds of 71, 60, 66 and 65, and the last one was close to flawless. He hit all 18 greens in regulation, only the fifth time any player had done that this season, according to LIV, and never gave the chasers a dropped shot to feed on. For the week, he led the field in Strokes Gained: Approach.

The board never let him breathe, though. Three of his birdies came in his last six holes, and for much of the back nine he was level with Rahm. On the par-5 18th, his final hole, La Sasso's second from 229 yards ran off the green and left him about 20 yards from the flag. The chip finished inside a foot. The birdie putt was a formality, and so was the result.

"I'm shaking if I'm being honest," La Sasso said afterward. He also said he had talked about this kind of week well before it arrived: "I spoke it into existence well before this week."

Rahm's Charge Falls One Short

Rahm did everything but finish it. Already sure of his third straight individual season title, he went 7 under on Sunday and birdied the 18th, his second-to-last hole in the shotgun, to take a one-shot lead. Then he missed an 11-foot par putt on the par-4 1st, his final hole, and the bogey opened the door for La Sasso.

His team still left with the bigger trophy, and Rahm did not dwell on the noise around the league either. "At the end of the day, once we step on the golf course, it's just golf," Rahm said.

DeChambeau's closing 64 was not quite enough to catch the kid. "Just the putts didn't drop today, and that's golf. It's a game of inches," he said. Garcia matched La Sasso's 65 to share third, while Scott Vincent, Laurie Canter and Richard T. Lee, whose 63 tied Rahm and Charles Howell III for the day's best, finished tied for fifth at 15 under. Dean Burmester was eighth and Richard Bland, who played in the final group as the league's oldest player beside its youngest, finished ninth at 13 under after a 69. Cameron Smith, one back to start the day, slid to a tie for 17th with a 72.

Legion XIII Go Back to Back

With the Michigan event cancelled, the season's team title came down to the lowest 72-hole team total at Chatham Hills, and Legion XIII turned a one-shot overnight lead into a rout. Rahm's 63 anchored the day, Tom McKibbin added 67, and Tyrrell Hatton and Caleb Surratt each shot 70 for a 10-under team round. McKibbin finished at 11 under, Hatton and Surratt at 8 under. Surratt led the entire field in Strokes Gained: Putting for the week.

The title comes with a reduced bonus of $8.4 million and makes Legion XIII back-to-back Team Champions. HyFlyers finished second at 38 under, the best team result in the club's history, with La Sasso's win and Vincent's tie for fifth doing the heavy lifting while captain Phil Mickelson was absent. Mickelson made only one start this season, but La Sasso said the captain texted the team on Saturday night. Ripper GC were third at 36 under, 4Aces GC fourth at 32 under, and Fireballs GC fifth at 31 under.

A Win Without a Map

La Sasso is the 2025 NCAA individual champion, turned pro in January to join HyFlyers, and won in his 13th professional start. His victory is just the second individual title in HyFlyers history, after Brendan Steele in Adelaide in 2024. He also takes the record for youngest winner in league history from Eugenio Chacarra by 50 days.

What comes next is the open question. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has said it will stop funding LIV after this season, and Field Level Media reported that CEO Scott O'Neil has an agreement with a new lead investor that is not yet finalized and depends heavily on player buy-in. DeChambeau, viewed as the player most loyal to the league, struck an upbeat note. "As much as we're transitioning from LIV 1.0 to 2.0, I have great thoughts about what could happen next year," he said. La Sasso, asked where he will play next, was honest: "I'm honestly not sure."

The Last Word

For a league facing that much uncertainty, Sunday offered something it has not always had: a genuinely new star. La Sasso shot 60 on Friday, held his nerve as a 54-hole leader on Saturday, and outlasted the best player in the league on Sunday with 18 greens and a chip that barely needed a putter. Whatever LIV becomes, its 2026 season ended with a 22-year-old making the most of the stage.

Relive the week with the Round 1, Round 2 and Round 3 recaps, and see the LIV Golf final-round report (opens in a new tab) and Last Look (opens in a new tab).

Sources: LIV Golf (final-round report, Last Look), Field Level Media, AFP, Arab News, Golf Monthly, Golf News Net. More golf coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: LIV Golf.