Jon Rahm's telling LIV Golf admission after 'bittersweet' £13million win
Jon Rahm admitted Joaquin Niemann was 'probably more deserving' of winning the LIV Golf title after pipping the Chilean to the post. The Spaniard secured his second consecutive LIV honour, despite losing a play-off after finishing 22-under in Indianapolis on Sunday.
The overall victory saw the 30-year-old rake in a hefty £13.3million in prize money. Rahm shot 11-under on Sunday but wasn't crowned that particular weekend's LIV champion.
The accolade instead went to Sebastian Munoz, Niemann's team-mate at Torque GC. Munoz shot a 59 on Friday, a professional golf record in a round also featuring a double bogey.
Niemann, who has five wins under his belt this year compared to Rahm's zero, has previously suggested that LIV Golf should reconsider its points structure after narrowly missing out in the overall standings. However, the Chilean was full of praise for his rival when speaking after Sunday's event.
"It was quite a show by Jon. I obviously played with him today, and I knew it was going to be a good battle," Niemann said. "It was going to be a long day. I knew I needed to play well. I knew Jon was playing amazing golf lately."
Niemann ended the weekend tied for fourth place at -17. "I played good. I started playing my best golf on the back nine, which I'm proud of it, but at the end of the day, the putts didn't drop, and it wasn't enough," he admitted.
Rahm, fresh off consecutive play-off losses, finished the year with four runners-up finishes and eight top 10s. He was somewhat tepid in his acceptance of his overall title and even suggested LIV's current system may be flawed.
"Still slightly bittersweet," the Spaniard said about how he was feeling. "Like I know I'm supposed to be happy. It's a great moment.
"But it just doesn't feel great to finish the year losing two play-off games. Have a great Sunday today and then hit the pin and an unfortunate moment on the play-off hole."
He was also quick to praise Niemann, who earned a £5.9m bonus instead. "You need a lot of coincidences to go on exactly with the year Joaquín had," Rahm said.
"He's won five times; he's played incredible golf. One could argue that he was probably the more deserving guy to win this.
"But we have the points system that we have, and somehow, I don't know how, I managed to pull through and get it done."
Rahm now boasts a second LIV Golf triumph to add to his already sparkling CV, which includes victories at the 2023 Masters and the 2021 US Open - plus a string of other major top-five finishes.
The rest of the top five performers from the weekend's LIV event in Indianapolis were: Munoz (-22*), Rahm (-22), Dustin Johnson (-20), Niemann (-17), David Puig (-17), Branden Grace (-17), and Carlos Ortiz (-17).
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