LIV

LIV Golf New York final leaderboard

-16 J Niemann (Chi); -13 H Varner III (US); -9 L Westwood (Eng), S Vincent (Zim)

Selected others: -6 P Casey (Eng), T McKibbin (NI); -3 L Canter (Eng); +1 R Bland (Eng)

Full leaderboard

Joaquin Niemann led throughout to win the LIV Golf New York event on Sunday, while Jon Rahm secured his third straight season title.

Niemann fired a two-under 69 to finish on 16-under after 72 holes at Trump National Bedminster in New Jersey.

That meant the Chilean won by three strokes from American Harold Varner III and the 27-year-old met US President Donald Trump after extending his record for LIV wins to nine.

“I feel like the more they push me, the better golfer I’m going to become from every experience,” said Niemann.

England’s Lee Westwood and Scott Vincent of Zimbabwe were both seven off the pace in a share for third place.

Rahm finished tied for 41st after closing with a round of 76 but the Spaniard has clinched the season title.

The world number 13 has an unassailable 219-point lead over American Bryson DeChambeau heading into the final individual event of the season at Indianapolis in two weeks.

The 31-year-old won last year’s season title despite not winning a single event, but this year has two wins from 12 so far – in Hong Kong and Mexico – and has also had four runner-up finishes.

“It has been a great year,” he said. “A little sour taste in my mouth because of how badly I played this week but it has been something to be proud of.

“After last year, not getting a win and possibly having a question mark over the season-long race, to win twice and win it again definitely feels good.”

The LIV season concludes with the team championship in Michigan from 27-30 August.

One day after a LIV Golf players-only meeting failed to produce a resolution, CEO Scott O’Neil announced Wednesday that a lead investor plans to fund the tour beyond this season and that the golfers will become the majority equity holders in the league.

The LIV Golf board of directors approved the term sheet, O’Neill said, giving the league new life after the Saudi Public Investment Fund decided in April to cease its financial backing at the end of the current season. The PIF had backed LIV Golf since its inception in 2022, spending an estimated $6 billion.

O’Neil, who made the announcement at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., the site of this week’s tournament, did not identify the investor or terms. He said the league hopes to finalize the transaction in September and that “our next chapter will make our players the majority equity holders in LIV Golf, a first for a major global sports league.”

“LIV Golf has an agreement in place with a lead investor, signed by the investor and approved by the board, to anchor the transaction and play a key role in supporting the path forward for the league’s next era, driven by and for the players,” O’Neil said in a statement. “We’re also seeing strong interest from more than a dozen additional parties to potentially serve as minority investors, creating a multi-partner model built for long-term stability and growth.”

The players-only meeting on Tuesday at Trump National came soon after O’Neil and other LIV Golf executives spoke to the players. The only player to speak at length with the media after the meeting was Richard Bland, who told the Athletic that Bryson DeChambeau had led the discussion to follow O’Neil’s lead, but that nothing definitive had been determined.

“We’re in this together. We’re fully backing Scott,” Bland said. “I think probably in the next two to three weeks we’ll have a bigger picture. We’re just in that kind of stage at the minute that we’re positive with what’s going on, but we just need everything to be fully signed off so you can go forward.”

O’Neil said in June that LIV Golf needed to secure roughly $300 million from outside private equity or institutional investors to sustain operations through 2027 and beyond. He has been pitching “LIV 2.0” with a streamlined business model.

“What we don’t have is a lot of time,” he said in June. “So we’re very urgently out there talking to those who are interested. We like the pool, but we have to get this done through the summer.”

It appears O’Neil might have met the deadline, although questions remain unanswered. LIV has been mulling whether to cancel its Team Championship on Aug. 27-30 at the Cardinal in Plymouth, Mich., the final tournament of the season. The purse is $40 million, cash that instead could be earmarked for 2027.

O’Neil said that making players the majority equity holders “gives the league the foundation to keep growing the game worldwide…. In the meantime, our focus is on delivering a great week for fans and players at Bedminster and finishing the 2026 season strong.’’

The competition will reduce to 10 events from next season, with five in the United States and five held around the world.

There were 14 events planned for the 2026 season but in April, LIV postponed June’s New Orleans competition amid questions over its future and has not announced a rescheduled date.

O’Neil said LIV is focused on “delivering a great week for fans and players at Bedminster” in New York, starting on Sunday and “finishing the 2026 season strong” – but made no explicit mention of the final two events scheduled this season, in Indianapolis from 23 August and the concluding team championship in Michigan from 30 August.

Major winners including Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm, Cameron Smith, Martin Kaymer and Sergio Garcia remain part of the LIV roster after having left the PGA Tour.

American major champions Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed rejoined the PGA Tour after it introduced a returning member programme.

In July, the PGA Tour and DP World Tour struck an alliance with the Asian Tour in another blow to LIV Golf.

O’Neil added: “We’re also seeing strong interest from more than a dozen additional parties to potentially serve as minority investors, creating a multi-partner model built for long-term stability and growth.”

LIV was founded in 2021 and launched the following year with 54-hole events and took its name from the Roman numeral for 54.

However, it moved to the tradition 72-hole format for golf tournaments from this season.