Joaquin Niemann wins rain-marred LIV Golf Virginia for fourth title of season

Joaquin Niemann outlasted nearly three hours of delays in a rain-marred final round of LIV Golf Virginia on Sunday to shoot an 8-under-par 63 to finish at 15-under and win the event by a single stroke over Graeme McDowell and Anirban Lahiri.

“I had an idea I was going pretty low today but didn’t quite know I was 8-under,” Niemann said. “I knew what I needed to do and tried to make more birdies and tried to chase the leaders, and it was a lot of fun.”

The win is Niemann’s fourth of the year on the Saudi Arabia-backed tour, earning him $4 million and increasing his hold on the top of LIV’s individual standings. His position is key, as it provides an exemption for him to play in the U.S. Open at Oakmont beginning Thursday.

“I actually haven’t been to Oakmont before. It’s going to be my first time,” he said. “I’ve got to go there on Monday, see what it is, and then see what I expect.”

The Chilean’s bogey-free round included eight birdies, with four of them coming consecutively on holes 14-17.

“Going back on Saturday, Saturday night, I kind of talked to myself that I was going to be patient on Sunday,” Niemann said. “I just wanted to have a good attitude, have good reactions after good putts, even though I missed them because it was pretty hard to read these greens.”

The shotgun start of the final round was moved up by nearly two hours to 8:05 a.m. to try and avoid severe weather. It was to no avail, as play at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club was delayed by storms for the second time during the 54-hole event.

First, a heavy downpour mid-round caused an approximate 40-minute delay, followed by a severe thunderstorm just after noon that forced a second, nearly two-hour pause with six holes to play. 

“Definitely challenging with the on and off, two breaks and not knowing how quickly we’re going to go out there,” Lahiri said. “It looks like Armageddon one minute, and next thing you know, you’re back on the course.”

Phil Mickelson would make a late charge with a birdie-birdie finish, but would end up with a 6-under 65, tying for fourth at -13 with Bryson DeChambeau, Bubba Watson, and Thomas Pieters.

“I really did have a lot of fun, and this is why I’ve been working hard is just to have the opportunities,” Mickelson said. “I didn’t know how the result was going to play out, but every opportunity to play and compete in this situation is just so much fun, and I just cherish it, and I hope to have more.”

The shot of Mickelson’s day and the entire tournament was a ridiculous 14-yard arching chip-in from the rough with his back to the hole on No. 17.

“It was hard guessing how much it was going to hook because it was soft greens and I had such an uphill lie, the ball was going to go high, but just judging how much the ball was going to come over my shoulder, that was the challenge,” he said. “Even I was a little bit surprised.”

“Man, he created some Phil Mickelson magic there. Vintage Phil,” said DeChambeau, who played in Mickelson’s group. “To see him get up on the side slope, and he’s just staring at it, you could just see his wheels turning … it went in the hole and I was like, that’s got to be one of the greatest shots I’ve ever seen in my entire life.”

Earlier in his round, Mickelson nearly did the same thing. He drove the left greenside bunker at the 323-yard, par-4 10th, and chipped it to within a foot of an eagle. He’d make birdie there and again two holes later at 12 after the first rain delay to move into a tie for the lead at -12, but would record his only bogey on the par-4 15th after the second rain delay as Niemann pulled away.

Mickelson’s 55th birthday is next Monday, and he’d love to celebrate with a win at Oakmont in potentially his final U.S. Open appearance — the lone major championship he has not captured.

McDowell, playing with Niemann in one of the final groups, birdied the par-4 17th, but his 21-foot birdie putt on the last to force a playoff came up a foot short to finish his round at -5.

The turning point for overnight leader Lahiri’s day was at the 9th. In the solo lead at -13, Lahiri didn’t commit to his swing on the 203-yard par 3 and shanked his initial shot right and into the trees on the cloistered hole. 

“For me, I didn’t get off to that start that I wanted, and then just around the middle, a bit of a momentum loss,” Lahiri said. “I think around 9, 10, 11, I should have picked up a shot or two there.”

He’d eventually bogey the hole, losing by that margin.

“It felt like a 71, to be honest,” Lahiri said of his 68. “No, I think I had a few bad holes out there, didn’t get off to a good start, and I think I needed to get off to a hot start.”

Ben Campbell and Lee Westwood recorded the low rounds of the day, both shooting 9-under-par 62, just one off the RTJ tournament record. Campbell recorded an incredible 11 birdies — including six straight on holes 13-1 after starting on No. 12 — but gave two strokes back with bogeys on No. 6 and No. 11.

DeChambeau’s Crushers would win the weekend’s team competition for the second consecutive event at a cumulative 36-under, two shots better than Dustin Johnson’s 4Aces squad. Johnson shot -5 for his round as he also prepares to head to Oakmont, site of his 2016 U.S. Open win.