Jon Rahm Complimentary of Season-Long Rival Niemann Ahead of LIV Individual Showdown

If you’ve followed the LIV Golf Tour the past year and a half, you’d notice that Jon Rahm and Joaquin Niemann have delivered some of the strongest performances over that span. Now the two stars will fittingly duel each other out at LIV Golf Indianapolis (Friday through Sunday) for the rights to LIV's season-long individual title.

This showdown will serve as a rematch of last year when the individual season finale was held in Chicago and Rahm took the event and the season-long title.

This year, Chicago served as the penultimate host for the finale last week and Rahm yet again played great golf to earn himself a tie for second place. The Spaniard now trails the points leader Niemann by 12.27 points entering this week’s event that starts Friday and a win in the event will be enough to assure the season-long title in every case except if Niemann finished solo second. Rahm’s nevertheless encouraged by his recent good form last week with the tie for second at Bolingbrook Golf Club in Chicago.

“It certainly made things a little bit easier than if I was 20 to 30 points behind and having a small chance of possibly getting it done,” Rahm told reporters in his press conference at LIV Golf Indianapolis on Wednesday. “I think the objective, obviously, is still going to be the same. I still believe I need to win this week, being a 12-point gap. If I win, I think that basically takes care of things, unless he finishes solo second.”

For the intense competitor that Rahm is, winning feels like a prerequisite in closing out his individual season, with next week’s team championship in Michigan on the horizon.

“I also think for my personal gratification, right, getting that win would definitely close out the year very, very nicely, and in a weird way, I wouldn't like to leave much up to chance,” Rahm said. “Had I won last week, this week would be basically who finishes higher on the leaderboard. Made the job a little bit easier for myself, and at the same time a little bit more difficult with close I was last week.”

Rahm knows there’s a lot at stake against his fellow competitor Niemann, but he’s also very complimentary of the impressive five-win season the Chilean star has put together.

“He's a fantastic competitor, fantastic golfer, great person as well,” Rahm said. “It's a lot of fun to share the stage with him. He's obviously been playing great golf, and even though I was able to get the best of him last year, he certainly made the job hard this year