By his own very high standards 2024 has not been a vintage season for Jon Rahm but this week the former world No1 could claim the first leg of a LIV Golf double worth more than $20m (£15m).
Rahm has endured the most fallow year of his prolific career, the first in which he has won neither multiple tournaments or a major, and his first drought of more than 12 months until he claimed the UK leg of the LIV Golf League at the JCB Club in July.
The Spaniard missed his first cut at a major in five years at the US PGA Championship in May and suffered a painful toe injury that kept him out of the US Open the following month.
But it has not been all bad; in fact, when Rahm has played he has been staggeringly consistent. Of the 15 events that he has played, he has finished in the top 10 on 13 occasions, including at the Open Championship and the men’s Olympic competition in Paris last month.
Rahm’s simmering form came to the boil with his win in Staffordshire and he took eventual winner Brooks Koepka to a play-off at the next LIV Golf event in Greenbrier – a result that saw him overtake longtime leader Joaquin Niemann in the $18m (£14m) individual championship.
On Sunday at Bolingbrook Golf Club, Chicago, he can guarantee the title in his debut season on the LIV Golf circuit by finishing above Niemann. Anything less than first place this weekend, however, will leave the door open for the Chilean.
“I’m probably going to need to win,” said Rahm, who won the PGA Tour’s BMW Championship at nearby Olympia Fields in 2020. “He’s going to be up there. I’m going to need another good week.”
Niemann started the year at lightning pace, winning the season opener in Mexico and the third event in Jeddah, and subsequently claimed podium finishes in Adelaide, Nashville and the UK but slipped to 15th last time out.
“I’ve got to try to bring my A game,” said Niemann, who will have to finish in the first seven places to have any chance of glory if Rahm continues his run of top 10s in Chicago. “He’s been playing great lately, so he’s probably going to keep doing the same.”
Rahm could yet complete a double this month, with his Legion XIII side currently second in the standings ahead of next week’s LIV Golf Team Championship. Results at Bolingbrook will determine seedings for the season-ending event in Dallas next week.
England’s Tyrrell Hatton, who was recruited to Legion XIII by his Ryder Cup teammate, is in pole position to finish third in the individual standings and pocket a bonus of $4m (£3m) but can still be caught by major winners Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen, Cameron Smith and Koepka.
At the other end of the table, this week will also decide who is assured of a place in next year’s LIV Golf League, who is at risk of being traded and who will be relegated out of the competition.
Among those facing an uncertain future are Graeme McDowell, Thomas Pieters, Sam Horsfield and Harold Varner III.