Battle for LIV Individual Championship heats up

Stimpmeter · August 17, 2025, 7:30am

The final day of the 2025 LIV Golf regular season reaches its exciting conclusion on Sunday at LIV Golf Indianapolis.

Drama is set to unfold across several fronts at The Club at Chatham Hills, including the tense showdown between Joaquin Niemann and Jon Rahm for the season-long Individual Championship.

In addition, the tournament title, which appeared headed for a runaway victory by record-setting Muñoz of Torque GC midway through Saturday’s second round, now provides plenty of intrigue after 4Aces GC captain Dustin Johnson moved into a tie for the lead with a second-round 64. Both players are at 16 under, four shots clear of their closest pursuers.

South Africa’s Branden Grace, playing for Stinger GC, is five shots behind the leaders on 11 under after shooting a 64.

Meanwhile, players at the bottom of the points standings – including all three Majesticks GC co-captains – are battling to avoid relegation. One of those captains, Henrik Stenson, made a huge move Saturday, as did HyFlyers GC’s Andy Ogletree.

Nothing is official until the final putt drops on Sunday, meaning plenty could change in what promises to be an electric day before another jam-packed crowd at Chatham Hills, a course that has offered plenty of low scores in the first two rounds.

The biggest prize will belong to either Niemann, the Torque captain, or Rahm, the Legion XIII captain and defending individual champion.

Niemann is at 12 under and tied for third after shooting a five-under 66 on Saturday. Rahm is one stroke back at 11 under after his 64.

Fittingly, the two will play in the same group in the final round.

“I’m looking forward to tomorrow,” said Niemann, a five-time tournament winner this season and the current points leader. “I think it’s been great. It will be a good day for us.”

Rahm, still seeking his first win this season, has been consistent and resilient to stay in the race. He will need to finish higher than Niemann on the leaderboard, and depending on their exact positions, may even need to win the tournament. Four birdies in his last five holes Saturday boosted his chances.

“I have to expect that Joaquin is going to come out and at the very least post a five under [66],” Rahm said. “He’s such a good player and it’s a very accessible golf course. I’m going to need a Sebastián-esque round to give myself a chance to win and hopefully take it all. If not, I’m going to need a lot of luck in all those possible scenarios.”

Rahm’s reference is to Muñoz’s 12-under 59 in Friday’s opening round, which included 14 birdies – the most in any round on any elite professional golf Tour – and a double-bogey, the only sub-60 round on any tour with a double-bogey.

Muñoz appeared to be headed for another low score Saturday when he birdied his first four holes and six of his first seven. At that point, he had 17 birdies in 18 holes over two rounds and held a seven-shot lead in his chase of a maiden LIV Golf title.

But he missed a three-foot birdie putt at the 9th, then bogeyed the 10th, knocking the wind out of his sails. He parred the next four holes, bogeyed the 15th, birdied the next two, but then doubled the 18th for a four-under 67.

“Just a couple mistakes,” Muñoz said. “Misjudgment of speed on 10 and then a really bad lie on 15 and unfortunately a bad swing on 18. I had my fair share of mistakes on that back nine. But yeah, looking forward to tomorrow.”

Johnson, meanwhile, kept grinding. After a start of six straight pars, he made six birdies during an eight-hole stretch to claw back into the tournament. His 16 under total is his best through 36 holes in his LIV Golf career. He’s the only player to win an event in each of LIV Golf’s first three seasons and would love to add a fourth year of success in his last chance of 2025.

“Haven’t really had that many chances this year, but really looking forward to tomorrow,” Johnson said. “I’m playing really solid. I’m really comfortable over the ball. Hopefully it’ll be a good day and a good fight.”

A good fight is also what players at the back end of the standings are engaged in as they seek to avoid the Drop Zone – those ranked 49th or lower in points – who will suffer relegation.

Stenson started the week on the bubble but is having his best week of the season, including a second-round 64 that left him in a six-way tie for third. He’s now projected to move to 39th in points, while fellow Majesticks co-captains Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter are currently projected to be relegated.

Meanwhile, the Majesticks are on pace for their best team finish of the season, currently sitting fourth at a collective 29 under, 10 strokes behind leader Torque. If projections hold, the Majesticks would move to 11th in the team standings and avoid next week’s play-in game between the bottom two seeds prior to the Michigan Team Championship.

“It’s been a bad season for us, no question, both as individuals and as a team,” Stenson said. “As you can tell, we’re all kind of bunched up towards the bottom of the order of merit.

“Everyone has obviously been a bit unhappy about that position. As individuals, we’re in certain positions, and then as a team as well, if we don’t move out of 12th we’ll play on Wednesday next week. So, we’ve obviously got that to try and sort out tomorrow with a strong finish as a team. It would be a nice week to finish off strong here.”

Photo: LIV Golf

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