Unstoppable Neimann tops LIV Virginia as Lahiri shares second place, Crushers win again

Crushers GC and India star Anirban Lahiri finished runner-up for the sixth time at a LIV Golf tournament after taking a two-shot lead into the final round in Gainesville, Virginia, on Sunday as points leader Joaquin Neimann swept past the field to his fourth title of the year.

Lahiri was 1 over in his first four holes before making birdies in three of the next four to get back on track. He also picked up a shot late in the round to finish on 3 under par 68 for the day and 14 under overall alongside Graeme McDowell, but Neimann was unstoppable, birdieing four of his last five holes to finish on 15 under for the weekend.

“Didn’t get off to that start that I wanted, and then just around the middle, a bit of a momentum loss,” Lahiri said later. “I tried my best but it’s disappointing to come up short. I could have played a lot better today. There's a few things that I need to go back and work on, maybe dealing with the conditions a little bit better, gauging and judging that. But it's a learning process.

“What I'm really happy about is how I handled myself. I think I was a lot calmer, more relaxed and more focused at the same time, and I believed until that last putt that I was going to win today. I think that's the most important thing that I need to take away from this week and bring to every other week.”

The final round saw several of LIV Golf’s top stars doing battle for their first individual title, but they all had to step aside as Torque GC captain Niemann continued his domination of the 2025 season to bring in a sizzling bogey-free 8 under par 63 to settle all doubts to the outcome at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club.

The result made the 26-year-old Chilean the most successful individual golfer on the LIV Golf roster with six wins in his last 21 starts. “Pretty cool to be in this place, in this position right now,” said Niemann. “I’m pretty thankful.”

He wasn’t alone in setting records at Gainesville though as Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers won their second consecutive title by two strokes over 4Aces GC to became the league’s most successful team with eight victories, including the 2023 team championship.

“I didn’t know we’ve won eight times, which is pretty cool,” said DeChambeau, who shot 65 to go with the 68s shot by Lahiri, Paul Casey and Charles Howell III.  “It’s a testament to these guys. The roster hasn’t changed. We’re a beast of a team.”

Although disappointed they weren’t able to sweep both trophies Sunday, DeChambeau’s current form and his veteran teammates’ support – last month in Korea, it was Howell who pushed DeChambeau to his first win of the season – have them in second place behind Legion XIII in the overall standings.

Also in contention on a rain-hit Sunday were major winners McDowell, Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson and Martin Kaymer while overnight leader Lahiri was out to end a 10-year wait after winning the 2015 Hero Indian Open.

Mickelson in particular pulled off some incredible shots, none better than a side-facing 120-degree backward chip out of heavy greenside rough for a hole-out birdie late in his round.

“One of my better ones,” Mickelson said with an understated grin. “I had to aim so far left because I'm hooking it over my shoulder and trying to guess how much it's going to hook is the challenge. But it wasn't hard stopping it.

“It was hard guessing how much it was going to hook because it was soft greens and I had such an uphill lie, the ball was going to go high. But just judging how much the ball was going to come over my shoulder, that was the challenge. Even I was a little bit surprised.”

Added DeChambeau, who had an up-close view of the shot, at the post-event press conference, “To see him get up on the side slope, and he's just staring at it. You could just see his wheels turning, and then he hit the shot, and I got the perfect angle of it. It looked like the top of this roof right here. Just came back down, landed perfectly, and I go, oh, my gosh, he's going to make it, and it went in the hole.

“Vintage Phil,” he added.“Got to be one of the greatest shots I’ve ever seen in my entire life.”

After a rain break action was hectic. In one short burst, DeChambeau chipped in for a birdie at the 16th hole, Thomas Pieters buried a 63-foot birdie putt, and Niemann, Watson and Lahiri also picked up shots to make it a six-way tie for the lead on 13 under.

But Niemann was not to be denied. He came out of the second weather delay smoking hot, making four consecutive birdies from holes 14 to 17 to shut the door on his chasers. It was a continuation of the final-round dominance in his four wins which have seen him go 27 under on those Title Sundays. It was also his first LIV win on US soil.

“Feel like I got some inspiration from Carlos Alcaraz, to be honest,” the Torque captain said. “I was watching his game, and it was pretty good to see that he was three match points of losing the match and being able to bring that back into the match and being able to win – it was pretty cool.”

“He’s just so good,” said former US Open winner McDowell, who shot a second consecutive 66 for his first podium finish. “He’s an absolute top-10 player in the world. You could argue the top five. Phenomenal, phenomenal player. I was really happy with the way I composed myself generally today. Drove the ball great. I felt pretty comfortable out there. Hopefully a big summer ahead. Been so disappointed with my general performance on LIV this to point, this is what I expect of myself still. Really nice to get the juices flowing a little bit. I'm super excited about the week.”

Meanwhile, 14 LIV Golf players will travel from Virginia to Pennsylvania for the US Open at Oakmont, where DeChambeau will be defending his title.

The Crushers captain will be joined by Dustin Johnson (4Aces), Brooks Koepka (Smash), Mickelson (HyFlyers), Niemann, Jon Rahm (Legion XIII) and Cameron Smith (Ripper), Tyrrell Hatton (Legion XIII), Jinichiro Kozuma (Iron Heads), Carlos Ortiz (Torque), Patrick Reed (4Aces). 

Also in the Oakmont field is Cleeks’ Richard Bland, who won last year’s US Senior Open, and LIV Golf’s newest player Josele Ballester, who made his professional debut with the Fireballs in Virginia, finishing T50.