4 Takeaways From Jon Rahm’s Win at LIV Golf Hong Kong

For the first time since September 2024, Jon Rahm is back in the winner’s circle. Rahm pulled away from the field with a 6-under on Sunday at LIV Hong Kong to finish 23-under par. He started the day tied with Thomas Detry (20-under) and Harold Varner III (18-under). Here are our takeaways: 1. Rahm turns impressive results into victory It’s frankly astonishing that Rahm did not win last year. He had 12 top-10 finishes and seven top-fives in his 13 starts last year, including four seconds. He started this year with back-to-back seconds, as well. Rahm’s results this year were especially impressive, and he would have won at LIV Adelaide if it weren’t for Anthony Kim’s memorable final round. His worst score this season was 20-under in Australia, and he turned his second 23-under tally into a win this week. Rahm’s worst round this season was 1-under in the final round in Adelaide. His next worst is 4-under par. He’s likely to be contending down the stretch at every LIV event this year. 2. 4Aces deliver a special Sunday performance The team race was tight entering the final round, with Smash GC leading the way at 44-under par. 4Aces stepped up, though. Dustin Johnson (5-under), Kim (4-under), Thomas Pieters (4-under) and Detry (3-under) all delivered quality rounds for a 16-under tally that put them atop the team leaderboard for the tournament at 56-under, six strokes ahead of Smash GC. While all four Smash GC golfers were under par, Jason Kokrak and Varner were both just 1-under, which opened the door for Johnson’s team. 3. Bryson DeChambeau’s slow start continues DeChambeau finished third in Adelaide, but his T17 and T24 starts in Riyadh and Hong Kong have him seventh in the individual standings. The two-time major champion is no stranger to this, though. Last year, he started with a T6, T18, T20 and T10 in the first four events, but he followed that with a fifth, T2, win and T4 in the next four events. 4. Kim doesn’t contend, but the result was still encouraging Last year, Kim finished better than 44th just twice in 13 starts. While his T31 finish is a bit underwhelming compared to his incredible win in Adelaide, it’s still a sign of improvement. Kim was 9-under this week in Hong Kong, never really contending after a 2-over second round. He did finish with back-to-back 4-under marks on the weekend, which will be something to build off as LIV heads to Singapore next week. Kim is third in the overall standings after this week, trailing only Rahm and Elvis Smylie, the 23-year-old who won the season opener in Riyadh and finished T8 in Hong Kong.