Jon Rahm’s Open resurgence points to LIV’s increasing relevance to golf

Bryson DeChambeau went for a stroll on South Beach Road around 3.30pm on Sunday, keeping his cap-free head down, pausing now and then to peer at the big houses within a few hundred yards of the Royal Toon links.

The American was probably oblivious to the fact that the formative years of Colin Montgomerie were spent in one of those homes — and he was likely also unaware that, just over the blue fences, Jon Rahmm’s challenge for the 152nd Open petered out.

It meant that, just like in 2023, LIV Golf has to be satisfied with one major win this year — DeChambeau’s US Open triumph last month.

Of course, DeChambeau, Rahm and the rest of the rebels — with Rahm tied for seventh, Dean Burmester was the next-best of the clan in a tie for 19th — arrived in Ayrshire thinking of their own performance and not that of their breakaway circuit.

But such has been the effect of LIV since it ripped up the landscape two years — with the Saudi tanks churning up the fairways as they fired their petro-dollars — that they do arrive on the stages that really matter as a collective.

DeChambeau was still in Troon, not because he admires the Ayrshire architecture or because he is an Elvis Presley fan and was intent on visiting Prestwick, the one place in Britain where the “King of Rock and Roll” spent time — as much as 90 minutes, it is claimed — as a member of the United States Army.

DeChambeau was hanging around, essentially because he is playing in “LIV Golf UK, the $25 million event at the JCB Golf and Country Club near Uttoxeter, which begins on Friday. It was a humble ending to a week in which he had come in as one of the favourites to lift the Claret Jug but, like Rory McIlroy, missed the cut.

It has been a rousing major campaign for big-hitting DeChambeau, however, with not only his second American national title at Pinehurst, but also a runner-up placing at the USPGA the previous month and finishing seventh at the Masters. It was about time that some other LIV multi-millionaire picked up the baton and, as Rahm tore off for the final lap, he threatened to produce a stunning come-from-behind golf medal.

Rahm birdied the first three holes and, at one under, was suddenly only three behind. He also birdied the seventh and on the Postage Stamp — the 100-yarder — left himself a 10-footer to get within one. But it slipped by and with the infamous back nine ahead, the Spaniard fared well to get in at one-under, courtesy of a 68.

“I thought if I could get close to lowest round of the week, which was six-under, it would have been a great round,” Rahm said. “But that back nine, once you turned into that left-to-right wind, it wasn’t helping as much as it has the last few days.

“The one thing I will remember most from this Open is that I didn’t birdie a single par five — and I can’t recall the last time I played good golf and finished in the top 10, and did that. In fact, I played the par fives in three-over. That’s where the tournament might have been [lost] for me.”

Of course, the LIV detractors will blame Rahm’s defection for his shortfall in the 2024 majors (after winning the Masters and finishing second in the Open last year, he finished tied 45th at Augusta, before missing the cut at the USPGA and withdrawing from the US Open with a foot complaint) but this display was heartening for the 29-year-old.

And for LIV? Eleven of their 19 players here made the cut and the League will head to Staffordshire as relevant as ever.

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