Rd. 3 recap: La Sasso, LIV Golf’s youngest player, grabs 54-hole lead; Legion XIII tops team leaderboard
WESTFIELD, Ind. – Michael La Sasso is LIV Golf’s youngest player at age 22. Richard Bland is the league’s oldest active player at 53. On Sunday, they’ll be matched in the final group of the LIV Golf Indianapolis Championships, an intriguing development entering the last round of the 2026 season.
La Sasso, who turned pro prior to the season to join HyFlyers GC, followed up his second-round 60 with a 4-under 66 in Saturday’s third round to move to 13 under. It’s the first time he has held the lead entering the final round of a tournament since May 2025 when he won the NCAA Division I Individual Championship while attending Ole Miss.
“I’m happy to be in this spot,” said La Sasso, who could become the youngest winner in league history if he claims the title Sunday. “It’s definitely been a while. I’m excited more than anything. We’ll see what tomorrow brings, but I’m ecstatic that I’m at this point.”
Four players are within one shot of the lead, including Bland, the Cleeks GC veteran who is one of just six players to have played every regular-season round in the league’s history. Bland will be looking for his first LIV Golf win and his first victory of any kind since winning two senior majors in 2024. He and fellow Englishman Laurie Canter will be in the final group with La Sasso.
“The youngest and the oldest,” said Bland, who bounced back from an opening double bogey Saturday to shoot 5-under 65. “I’m sure he’ll be 50 yards past me off the tee. He’s a great kid. I’ve played with Michael a couple of times this year. You can see he’s got a huge amount of talent. He’s got a great future … Hopefully there’s a little life in the old man yet.”
Ripper GC Captain Cameron Smith and 4Aces GC’s Thomas Detry are also tied for second at 12 under and will be in the penultimate group along with Fireballs GC captain Sergio Garcia, who joins teammate Josele Ballester and Korean Golf Club’s Younghan Song at 11 under. Six players are tied at 10 under, including Legion XIII Captain Jon Rahm – who has clinched his third consecutive Individual Championship – and Crushers GC Captain Bryson DeChambeau, who is seeking to retain second place in the season-long standings.
It’s an ecletic leaderboard, with 11 teams represented by players inside the top 10. Of the 15 players within three shots of the lead, 10 have yet to win a LIV Golf individual trophy.
“Seriously, a bunched leaderboard,” said Canter, who followed his opening 62 with a pair of 68s. “In terms of the field, I hadn’t realized obviously you’ve got maybe the oldest guy at LIV and the youngest guys at LIV. That’s a pretty cool story. I find myself rooting a bit for La Sasso because I think he’s a really funny kid. He’s obviously adjusting to life as a pro, and I obviously want to beat him tomorrow, but I kind of look at him on the board thinking, ‘Go on. Keep it up.
“There’s a few good storylines out there. It’s cool that potentially we’ll get somebody who hasn’t won an event win tomorrow. Obviously I’d love for it to be me.”
Sunday’s final round will also decide the 2026 Team Championship. Legion XIII, a two-time winner this season and the defending LIV Golf Team Champions, moved to the top of the leaderboard at 34 under. The HyFlyers, who have never won a team trophy, are one shot back. Ripper GC is at 31 under, while 4Aces GC, the regular-season champions, are at 30 under.
Ten of the 13 teams are within 11 shots of the lead, a manageable margin given that all four scores count for every round.
“I know we’ve had a good year this year,” said Smith, whose all-Australian team has won three times and finished second in points. “To finish it off with a win would be nice.”
La Sasso, meanwhile, would certainly like to end his first season on LIV Golf with a victory. At 22 and playing just his 12th LIV Golf event, he’s already getting anxious to post that first professional win.
“There’s a lot of young guys doing a lot of good stuff,” he said. “I’m friends with pretty much all of them. I would say it definitely fuels the fire. There’s been countless guys that I played with in college that have already won professionally now. If I could add my name to the resume, that would be pretty sweet.”
TOP OF THE LEADERBOARDS
Individual Top 10
1 (-13) – Michael La Sasso, HyFlyers (71-60-66)
T2 (-12) –Laurie Canter, Majesticks (62-68-68); Richard Bland, Cleeks (66-67-65); Cameron Smith, Ripper (63-68-67); Thomas Detry, 4Aces (66-64-68)
T6 (-11) – Sergio Garcia, Fireballs (64-69-66); Bubba Watson, RangeGoats (64-68-67); Josele Ballester, Fireballs (66-68-65); Younghan Song, Korean (67-67-65)
T10 (-10) – Bryson DeChambeau, Crushers (65-68-67); Thomas Pieters, 4Aces (66-65-69); Scott Vincent, HyFlyers (66-68-66): Jon Rahm, Legion XIII (67-67-66); Matthew Wolff, RangeGoats (66-65-69); Dean Burmester, Southern Guards (64-68-68)
Team Top 3
1 (-34) – Legion XIII (Hatton 67-67-68, McKibbin 67-69-66, Rahm 67-67-66, Surratt 64-69-69); Rd. 3 score: -11)
2 (-33) – HyFlyers GC (La Sasso 71-60-66, Steele 64-68-69, Vincent 66-68-66, Tringale 68-70-71; Rd. 3 score: -8)
3 (-31) – Ripper GC (Herbert 66-69-71, Leishman 66-67-68, Smith 63-68-67, Smyth 70-66-68; Rd. 3 score: -6)
Click here for full leaderboard
ROUND 3 NOTES
SOUVENIRS FOR LA SASSO: Michael La Sasso has enjoyed the global travel afforded to him as a LIV Golf player, having competed in 10 countries across five continents this season. He’s a golfer first, but also a tourist – and he likes to have something tangible from all his visits.
“After every event, I always try and get something from each play, kind of just to hold as a personal things to realize what I leanred that week and something to reflect on,” said the young HyFlyers GC star. “I have so many little trinkets at home.”
Meanwhile, he’s also learned quite a bit from his teammates, particularly veteran Brendan Steele, along with Cameron Tringale and Scott Vincent, who joined the team midway through this season.
“It’s pretty cool to see how they are so level-headed most of the time,” La Sasso said. “Every day it seems like they kind of do the same thing over and over again, and it makes their life a lot easier, makes their caddies’ lives a lot easier.
“Kind of just learning off of that, I think that’s been a big adjustment. Especially with Steeley, he loves talking through equipment and stuff. I’ve kind of switched around a little bit this year, asking for his advice. He’s been very helpful on that front.”
Players from other teams have also made an impact. On Saturday, he was in the same group as fellow NCAA champion Matthew Wolff of RangeGoats GC. “We play a lot of golf back in Jupiter [Florida] together,” La Sasso said of Wolff. “When I saw we were paired up, I was pretty ecstatic about that. He definitely brought the vibes out there today.”
YOUNGEST WINNER: Eugenio Chacarra is the youngest winner in LIV Golf history, having won the 2022 title in Bangkok at age 22. If Michael La Sasso wins on Sunday, he would be 50 days younger than Chacarra.
CANTER’S RECENT SUCCESS: Majesticks GC’s Laurie Canter has won European Tour events in each of the previous two seasons and hopes to draw upon that success as he chases his first LIV Golf title on Sunday. He said he’ll be nervous on the first tee, but he considers that a good thing. So is his prior experience.
“Knowing how to win a tournament is huge,” Canter said. “You have to be comfortable hanging around the lead and be comfortable in that environment. But I think first and foremost, we’re playing here where everyone is trying to push forward. There’s going to be a lot of birdies made.”
SMITH SEEKS RETURN TO WINNER’S CIRCLE: It’s been three years – specifically, 1,107 days – since Ripper Captain Cam Smith last won an individual trophy (2023 LIV Golf Bedminster). He enters Sunday just one shot off the lead after shooting a 3-under 67 that left him at 12 under.
“It’s starting to feel nice,” Smith said. “I wouldn’t say major championship Cameron has come out, but it’s feeling really close.”
Smith entered the week ranked 53rd in the league in fairways hit but has only missed four fairways at Chatham Hills.
BLAND’S DOUBLE START: Cleeks GC’s Richard Bland opened his third round with a double bogey at the par-4 sixth. But he immediately bounced back with an 8-foot birdie putt at the seventh and eventually ended his round with two birdies to shoot 65.
“Sometimes good rounds start with bad holes,” Bland said. “It was important to get that birdie kind of straight back on 7.”
The 53-year-old Englishman has played all 58 stroke-play LIV Golf tournaments and would love to close out his fifth season on LIV Golf with his first league individual trophy. “It would be very special,” he said. “… Whoever wins rtomorrow, it’s a nice way to finish the season on LIV. We all want it a tremendous amount.”
INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONSHIP UPDATE: Legion XIII Captain Jon Rahm has already wrapped up his third consecutive LIV Golf Individual Championship but the two other bonus-paying positions remain up for grabs among No. 2 Bryson DeChambeau, No. 3 Joaquin Niemann, No. 4 Lucas Herbert and No. 5 Tyrrell Hatton.
DeChambeau is tied for 10th at 10 under, Niemann is tied for 16th at 9 under, Hatton is tied for 23rd at 8 under and Herbert is tied for 36th at 4 under.
That leaves DeChambeau – who is guaranteed no worse than a third-place finish in the final standings – and Niemann still projected to claim the podium spots behind Rahm.
ODDS AND ENDS
- Michael La Sasso has never finished a LIV Golf round better than 11th in the field prior to this week
- Richard Bland hjas only started the final round in second place one other time in his LIV Golf career – 2025 LIV Golf Korea when he eventually finished T7. Bland’s best-ever finish is a solo third at Greenbrier in 2023
- Thomas Detry has the most top-5 finishes this season without winning (4 – Hong Kong, South Africa, Mexico and Andalucia)
- Laurie Canter is one of 17 players in the field this week who played in LIV Golf’s inaugural event in London in 2022. He would be the sixth player to have played in that event and eventually become a league winner.
- Of the three teams who have never won a team tournament title, HyFlyers GC is in best position to end that drought. The HyFlyers will start the final round in solo second, just one shot off the lead. Korean Golf Club is in sixth place, six shots behind, while Majesticks GC dropped to 10th place, 11 shots behind
STATS LEADERS
Round 3
Driving Distance: Dustin Johnson, 336.6-yard avg.
Longest Drive: Dustin Johnson, 371.2 yards (8th hole). Official measured drives taken only on holes 8 and 18.
Driving Accuracy: Bjorn Hellgren, 100% (14 of 14)
Greens in Regulation: Charles Howell III, 88.89% (16 of 18)
Scrambling: Minkyu Kim (8 of 8), Adrian Meronk (7 of 7), Cameron Smith (6 of 6), Younghan Song (5 of 5), Jon Rahm (5 of 5), Travis Smyth (5 of 5), Talor Gooch (3 of 3), Tom McKibbin (3 of 3), 100%
Fewest Putts: Brendan Steele, Minkyu Kim, Charl Schwartzel, 23
Bogey-free rounds: Minkyu Kim (66), Tom McKibbin (66), Adrian Meronk (66), Jon Rahm (66)
Cumulative
Driving Distance: David Puig, 329.5-yard avg.
Driving Accuracy: Lee Westwood, Louis Oosthuizen, 92.86% (39 of 42)
Greens in Regulation: Scott Vincent, 79.63% (43 of 54)
Scrambling: Cameron Smith, 85.71% (18 of 21)
Fewest Putts: Cameron Smith, 75
Low rounds: Rd. 1 – Laurie Canter (62). Rd. 2 – Michael La Sasso (60). Rd. 3 – Richard Bland, Younghan Song, Josele Ballester, Charl Schwartzel (65)
