Sunday’s final round of Maaden LIV Golf Virginia 2026 appears to be a showdown between tournament leader Lucas Herbert and primary chaser Sergio Garcia, who have separated themselves from the pack.
Related: Lucas Herbert steams on in LIV Virginia
But as big-hitting youngster Josele Ballester showed Saturday, the rest of the field can still make up ground quickly with a super-low score.
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Herbert maintained his lead at Trump National Washington D.C. with a solid 4-under 68 in Saturday’s third round, leaving him at 21 under and three shots ahead of Garcia, who shot a 65 to move to 18 under. The next closest pursuers are eight shots behind, but Herbert wasn’t ready to declare it a two-man race for the title.
“I don’t want to rule anyone out, and I don’t want it to turn into a match-play situation when it’s still a stroke-play event,” said the Ripper GC member. “The reality is it’s very much in mine and Sergio’s hands. If we play great, the other guys are going to struggle to catch us. If we don’t play great, we open the door for them.”
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Ballester certainly broke through the door Saturday with a bogey-free 12-under 60 that ties a league record for lowest round relative to par. The 22-year-old, a member of Garcia’s Fireballs GC team, started the day tied for 33rd but is now tied for third at 13 under entering the final round. It’s the biggest one-round jump in leaderboard position in league history.
“I know that this round doesn’t happen very often,” said Ballester, who saw his birdie putt from 29 feet on his final hole fade to the right in his bid for 59. “Hopefully I can start feeling and entering the flow zone a little more often.”
Ballester is tied with Crushers GC Captain Bryson DeChambeau, Southern Guards GC’s Dean Burmester and HyFlyers GC’s Scott Vincent. DeChambeau shot a bogey-free 64 to give him an outside shot at his third individual win this season.
“Look, there’s always an opportunity,” DeChambeau said. “You’ve got to hopefully have [Herbert] mess up and make a couple of bogeys and us get off to a hot start and narrow that gap.”
Herbert, however, has been mostly unflappable for the first three rounds. He saw Garcia birdie five of the first six holes and saw DeChambeau and Jon Rahm each play their first three holes in 5 under, yet he didn’t buckle under the pressure.
The 30-year-old Australian was 3 under in his first six holes Saturday before suffering his lone bogey of the day at the par-4 seventh. After that, he played the final 11 holes in a bogey-free 2 under.
“I didn’t feel like I did a lot wrong,” said Herbert, who is aiming for his first LIV Golf individual title. “Proud of the way that Sergio was giving me a good run there, and I didn’t take a step back. It felt good, to be honest. Felt like I was getting primetime Sergio there coming up against me. Pretty fun having that battle.”
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The 46-year-old Garcia, who has won a LIV Golf tournament in each of the past two seasons, made 10 birdies but suffered three bogeys that kept him from sharing the lead. He finished the round with back-to-back birdies but still has plenty of work left to chase down Herbert.
“You can’t just think, oh, it’s just Lucas and I,” Garcia said. “Obviously if we play well, it will be him and I, but we still have to go out there and play well. There’s still 18 holes to go and anything can happen.”
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The team competition is just as compelling. Fueled by Ballester’s 60, the Fireballs shot a cumulative 28 under, the second-lowest team score for a single round in LIV Golf history. The all-Spanish team moved to 35 under and in a tie with Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII for first place, with Herbert’s Ripper GC two shots back.
