COLLEGE GROVE: After three and a half years without an individual victory, Tyrrell Hatton proved this week that not only can he win again, he can also dominate. His Legion XIII team, meanwhile, proved it can win a birdiefest.
Hatton romped to victory Sunday at LIV Golf Nashville, shooting a final-round 65 for a six-shot win over Majesticks GC’s Sam Horsfield. That ties for the second largest winning margin in LIV Golf history, and his 19-under total ties for the second lowest score.
It is also the largest winning margin of the 11 victories in Hatton’s career. More importantly, it ends a drought that had the 32-year-old Englishman wondering if he would ever return to the winner’s circle.
“Having not won for three and a half years, you wonder if you’d be able to do it again in some way,” said Hatton, who was never seriously threatened in the final round. “It’s a pretty special feeling to win again.”
His Legion XIII captain, Jon Rahm, had no doubt of Hatton’s ability upon bringing him to LIV Golf as his top running mate on his new expansion team. As it turned out, Hatton beat Rahm to the team’s first individual title.
“For all those out there who don’t know how good Tyrrell Hatton is, this is sure proof,” said Rahm, who finished in a four-way tie for third. “I think today just shows how good he can be. Obviously, it’s never easy to win, and to win by six in three rounds is quite impressive.”
Hatton entered the final round with a three-shot lead, and then birdied the third and fourth holes. Rahm made an early move and at one point closed the gap to two before suffering a double-bogey at the par-4 sixth when he found the water with two different shots.
The hottest player on the course, Torque GC Captain Joaquin Niemann, shot a 9-under 62 but was too far back to start the day, eventually tying for third.
“A three-shot lead isn’t the easiest thing to go out and play with because you know guys are going to be trying to chase you,” said Hatton, whose par save on the 13th hole was the final key moment. “I got off to a nice start and that settled me down.”
The team battle was a bit more competitive, even though Legion XIII broke out to a 10-stroke advantage in the early stages. At one point, their lead was whittled to inside four strokes, which, with all scores counting, can disappear fast.
But with all four Legion players shooting under par, they never really opened the door for any chasers. The closest competition was for the other two podium spots, with Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GC taking second while Torque edged out Majesticks GC for third.
Legion’s previous two victories came at Mayakoba (at 24 under) and Miami (22 under) on two challenging courses that did not offer endless scoring opportunities. The Grove course, with its wide fairways, was gettable this week, leaving Rahm to wonder if his club could win such a race. They did with a total of 40 under, the second-lowest winning score of the season. It is the third win for Legion XIII this season and it moves them within nine points of the league-leading Crushers in the season-long standings.
“I didn’t think this was particularly a golf course setup suited for our team,” Rahm said. ‘Not that we can’t but … those birdiefest-type events have not been our thing. Of course after I say that, we wind up with a win.”
It helps when you have the individual winner scorching the field.
Team scores:
Standings and counting scores for Sunday’s final round of the team competition at LIV Golf Nashville. The three best scores from each team count in the first two rounds while all four scores count in the final round. The team with the lowest cumulative score after three rounds wins the team title.
1. LEGION XIII -40 (Hatton 65, Rahm 68, Surratt 69, Vincent 70; Rd. 3 score: -12)
2. CRUSHERS GC -35 (Casey 65, DeChambeau 68, Lahiri 69, Catlin 70; Rd. 3 score: -12)
3. TORQUE GC -34 (Niemann 62, Munoz 65, Ortiz 69, Pereira 72; Rd. 3 score: -16)
4. MAJESTICKS GC -32 (Horsfield 65, Westwood 66, Poulter 70, Stenson 70; Rd. 3 score: -13)
5. STINGER GC -22 (Oosthuizen 64, Schwartzel 67, Burmester 72, Grace 72; Rd. 3 score: -9)
T6. RIPPER GC -19 (Jones 68, Leishman 69, Smith 69, Herbert 70; Rd. 3 score: -19)
T6. CLEEKS GC -19 (Bland 66, Samooja 69, Meronk 70, Kaymer 74; Rd. 3 score: -5)
8. FIREBALLS GC -16 (Ancer 68, Garcia 68, Chacarra 70, Puig 75; Rd. 3 score: -3)
9. 4ACES GC -15 (Perez 64, Reed 67, Varner III 71, Johnson 75; Rd. 3 score: -7)
10. HYFLYERS GC -14 (Tringale 66, Steele 67, Mickelson 71, Ogletree 72; Rd. 3 score: -8)
11. RANGEGOATS GC -13 (Wolff 67, Pieters 68, Watson 69, Uihlein 73; Rd. 3 score: -7)
12. SMASH GC -12 (Koepka 71, Kokrak 71, McDowell 71, Gooch 72; Rd. 3 score: +1)
13. IRON HEADS GC -11 (Lee 70, Na 72, Vincent 72, Kozuma 74; Rd. 3 score: +4)