Winning start for Jon Rahm's LIV Golf team as Wyndham Clark confirms rumours

Tyrrell Hatton leads way for Legion XIII in Mexico as US Open champion wins shortened PGA Tour event

Team captain Jon Rahm, right, celebrates with his Legion XIII team-mates Tyrrell Hatton, Kieran Vincent and Caleb Surratt after their win in LIV Golf's season-opener in Mexico. Picture: Chris Trotman/LIV Golf.

Jon Rahm’s new Legion XIII team made a winning start in the opening event of the 2024 LIV Golf season as Wyndham Clark, who confirmed he’d turned down a chance to also be part of the breakaway circuit this year, landed a third PGA Tour title triumph in less than nine months after the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am was reduced to 54 holes due to bad weather.

Despite being formed less than 48 hours before the new campaign got underway in Mayakoba in Mexico, Masters champion Rahm joined forces with Legion XIII team-mates Tyrrell Hatton, Caleb Surratt and Kieran Vincent to claim a four-shot win in the season-opener, which saw Chile’s Joaquin Niemann beat Sergio Garcia at the fourth extra hole in a play-off to land his first individual triumph on the circuit.

On a day when all four scores counted, Hatton led the way with a best-of-the-day seven-under-par 64, Surratt birdied his last five holes for a 67, Vincent added a 69 and Rahm had to settle for a 70 after a disappointing finish.

“It's very nice on a day in which in any normal tournament I probably would have been upset at my finish to actually have something to celebrate,” said Rahm, who joined LIV Golf in December for a whopping $476 million. “That is one of the big reasons why I decided to transition.”

Clark, meanwhile, admitted he’d held talks with LIV Golf as the US Open champion, having jumped to the top of the leaderboard following a course record-equalling 60 on Saturday, savoured his latest PGA Tour triumph after hopes of playing the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on Monday following its cancellation on Sunday were dashed due to ongoing strong winds on Monterey Peninsula.

“Yeah, there's definitely some truth,” admitted Clark of rumours about him having been a target for LIV Golf. “I definitely met with LIV and went through those discussions. I wanted to see what they could bring to the table. I ultimately declined going to LIV because I felt like I still have a lot of things left in the tank on the PGA Tour and I wanted to chase records, I wanted to chase world ranking. Ultimately, I chose my legacy over LIV.”