Jon Rahm Outlasts Davis Thompson to Win The American Express Tournament

Jon Rahm is celebrating another win…

The 28-year-old Spanish professional golfer took advantage of mistakes by rookie Davis Thompson over the adventuresome final three to close with a 4-under 68 to win by one stroke at The American Express tournament.

Jon Rahm It’s Rahm’s second PGA Tour win in as many starts this year.

“I’m, in a weird way, glad that today went the way it went,” Rahm said. “I’ve enjoyed some runaway victories, I’ve enjoyed some comebacks, but today was certainly a struggle. Out of the five birdies I made, what is it, one, two, three of them were tap-ins and the other two were basically 6-footers. So that tells you the story.”

Rahm pumped his fist a final time after tapping in for a two-putt par on No. 18 at PGA West‘s Stadium Course.

Rahm and Thompson were tied with three holes to play when Thompson, who led through 36 holes and shared the lead with Rahm entering Sunday, pulled his drive into a deep fairway bunker on the par-5 16th and wound up with par. Rahm made birdie to take the lead.

On the par-3 17th, Thompson chose to leave the pin in for his 50-foot birdie putt on the island green, and the ball squarely hit the pin and rolled away. The 23-year-old from Georgia dropped his putter and put his hands to his face. As he walked to the 18th tee after tapping in for par, he pulled his shirt up over his mouth in frustration.

“I usually always leave the stick in from a long distance,” Thompson said. “I feel like it helps me with my speed. I’ll probably play the ‘what if’ game in my head for a long time, unfortunately. I had a great read. I probably hit it too firm. If it had great speed it would have just hit the flag and dropped. But we’ll never know. I’m proud of myself for this week.”

Rahm hit his tee shot into a bunker on 18 but recovered nicely with a shot to 15 feet and pumped his fist. Thompson’s drive found the fairway but his approach bounced on the green and ran down the slope behind it. The rookie hit a bold flop shop that settled a foot to the right of the hole. He shot 69.

“I had a great week,” said Thompson, who made five eagles through the first two rounds, tying the PGA Tour record for eagles in a 72-hole event. “Competing against the best in the world is my dream and I did that today and proved that I can hang with ’em. It was a lot of fun. A lot of nerves and I hit a lot of quality golf shots under pressure, which was really cool.”

Rahm finished at 27-under 261 and won for the ninth time on the PGA Tour. He moves up one spot to No. 3 in the world. He is playing this week at Torrey Pines, while world No. 1 Rory McIlroy makes his 2023 debut in Dubai on the European tour.

Rahm now has won four of his last six starts — he won twice on the European tour at the end of last year. This was his seventh straight top 10 worldwide, a streak that began after the Tour Championship in late August.

He became the third player since 2000 with multiple PGA Tour wins in January, joining Justin Thomas (2017) and Ernie Els (2003). And it was his third career finish at 27 under or better, breaking a tie with Phil Mickelson for most in tour history.

“Heck of a start,” said Rahm, who won the Sentry Tournament of Champions two weeks ago at Kapalua. “Obviously Sentry and this one are very, very different golf courses and very different golf. You still have to go low in both of them. So luckily the mentality is the same.

“Body’s been feeling great. My swing’s been feeling really, really good. And it shows, right?. Even when I’m saying I may not be as comfortable as I would like, I’m shooting 64s because everything is just firing when it needs to.”

Jon Rahm Erases Collin Morikawa’s 7-Shot Lead to Win Tournament of Champions

Jon Rahm is leaving Hawaii as an unexpected champion…

The 28-year-old Spanish professional golfer left Maui with the Tournament of Champions trophy following the collapse in play of Collin Morikawa.

Jon RahmRahm started the final round of the tournament seven shots behind. He bogeyed his first hole. He was six shots back at the turn to Morikawa, who had yet to make a bogey the entire week at Kapalua Plantation Course.

“Bit of a crazy day, I’m not going to lie,” Rahm said.

A wild hour featured a seven-shot swing in four holes when Rahm ran off three straight birdies and an eagle, and Morikawa, playing two groups behind him, made three straight bogeys on holes the rest of the field collectively played in 44-under par.

It ended with Rahm making one last birdie for a 10-under 63 and a two-shot win over Morikawa (72), who went from a sure victory to a footnote in PGA Tour history as the ninth player to lose a six-shot lead going into the final round.

“It’s going to hurt, but I’ve got to get over it because we’re still in the very early parts of the season,” Morikawa said.

So began the bold new year on the PGA Tour of elevated tournaments that average $20 million in prize money in a bid to bring the best together more often and reward them amid the challenge of Saudi-funded LIV Golf.

Rahm is riding a big wave, winning for the third time in his past five starts worldwide.

“In my mind, I feel like since August I’ve been the best player in the world,” he said.

Rahm finished at 27-under 265, and it was a small measure of redemption. Last year he finished at 33-under par at Kapalua, which was a PGA Tour record that lasted only a few seconds.

Rahm now is 60 under in his past two appearances at Kapalua. The victory was his ninth on the PGA Tour and 17th worldwide, and assures he will be back on Maui to start 2024.

He won $2.7 million from the $15 million purse at Kapalua, the first of the “elevated” events on the PGA Tour schedule. He also gets 25% of his Player Impact Program bonus money — he finished No. 5 in the PIP for $6 million.

The Spaniard now has won in each of his seven full years on the PGA.

Jon Rahm Wins DP World Tour Championship

Make that three titles this year for Jon Rahm

The 28-year-old Spanish professional golfer claimed the trophy at the DP World Tour Championship, taking his third title of the season and third DP World Tour Championship in the last six editions of the event.

Jon RahmAfter a 70-66-65 start, Rahm shot 67 on Sunday while playing alongside U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick. Combined, those two have now won five of the last seven DP World Tour Championships.

After going out in 33, Rahm came home in 34 for the trophy. At 20 under, he beat Tyrrell Hatton and Alex Noren by two and Roy McIlroy by four.

“Because of COVID I never got a chance to defend my 2019 title, and even though I decided not to come last year, I came with the mentality that, well, nobody beat me in the last two years, so they are going to have to beat me again,” Rahm said.

Rahm has won this tournament now in three of the last four times he’s competed. He is 72 under and has defeated 212 of 217 competitors in those four starts. As referenced, he did not play it in 2020 as the defending champion nor did he make it over last year for the 2021 edition.

Jon Rahm Wins Third Career Open de España Title

Jon Rahm is a national champion once again…

The 27-year-old Spanish professional golfer won the Open de España by six shots to match Seve Ballesteros‘ record of winning three national titles.

The world No. 6 led Australia’s Min Woo Lee by one shot heading into the final round at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid, but cruised to victory with a final-round 62, the lowest round of the week.

Rahm, who won the event in 2018 and 2019, finished six shots clear of second-placed Matthieu Pavon.

Asked how special the victory was, Rahm told Sky Sports: “You might need to ask me in a few days because I take quite a while to process these things.

“It was the goal coming in; Seve is a great hero of mine and to do something he took his whole career to do in just a few years is quite humbling, I’m not going to lie.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW THIS ADVERT

“I understand it might not be the strongest field I play all year but sometimes these can be the hardest to win. I’m at home, I’m supposed to win, everybody is betting on me to win and to come out and play a Sunday like I just did is hard to describe.

“It’s my lowest score out here, it was pretty much a perfect week. The only thing that would make it better is if my wife and kids were here but I have a lot of family here that I don’t see throughout the year to celebrate with.

“It’s emotional. Going up the 18th hole I knew what was about to happen and to get it done like that, I can’t describe it.”

Rahm took a one-shot lead into the final round and quickly doubled his advantage with a birdie on the second, before picking up further shots on the sixth and seventh.

Playing partner Min Woo Lee kept up the pressure and closed to within a shot thanks to a birdie on the sixth and an eagle on the par-five seventh, only for Rahm to pull away with birdies on the ninth and 11th.

A bogey on the 12th briefly halted Rahm’s momentum but he responded with a birdie on the next and then almost made an albatross on the par-five 14th, his approach from 208 yards hitting the pin and finishing just five feet from the hole.

The resulting eagle put the result beyond any doubt and Rahm signed off in style with birdies on the 17th and 18th, while Pavon’s flawless closing 65 secured his third runners-up finish on the DP World Tour.

Lee finished a shot behind Pavon in third, with Ryder Cup vice-captain Edoardo Molinari and Zander Lombard two strokes further back in a tie for fourth.

Rahm’s win will take the 27-year-old from sixth to fifth in the world rankings.

Jon Rahm Outlasts Competition to Win Mexico Open

Jon Rahm has returned to the winner circle…

After a stressful final two hours of competition, the 27-year-old Spanish professional golfer held on to win the Mexico Open and claim his first victory since the U.S. Open last summer.

Jon RahmRahm rolled in a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-5 14th hole to pull out of a four-way tie for the lead, and he had to make two tough pars and a finish more nervy than he expected.

The relief and satisfaction was evident when he tapped in for par on the final hole at Vidanta Vallarta for a one-shot victory. He pumped his arm and then pounded his fist downward, and at one point he looked skyward and exhaled.

“Today was a battle,” Rahm said. “But I got it done.”

Tony Finau and Brandon Wu each closed with a 63, while Kurt Kitayama birdied the final hole from a back bunker for a 68. They tied for second.

Rahm had a couple of close calls in Mexico City when it was a World Golf Championship at Chapultepec. Now the Mexico Open, which has a history dating to 1944, is a regular PGA Tour event for the first time. And it got a popular winner.

Against one of the weaker fields of the year — Rahm at No. 2 was the only player from the top 15 in the world — the Spanish golfer was a heavy favorite and played that way from his opening 64.

“I like to think every time I tee it up I’m a favorite. I play to win,” Rahm said. “Fortunately, I got my seventh PGA Tour win. It was a pretty stressful weekend, all the way to the end.”

Staked to a two-shot lead going into the final round, he never trailed. But it was never easy.

Rahm had a one-shot lead after his lone bogey of the round on the tough par-4 10th.

Well ahead of him, Wu holed a 25-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole to join him at 16 under. Kitayama, playing in the final group with Rahm, got up and down from right of the green on the par-5 12th to tie. And then Finau went birdie-eagle-birdie to get in the mix and capped off his 63 with a birdie to make it a four-way tie.

“I really wanted to put together a nice week and I was able to do that this week and gave myself a chance to do something special right at the end,” Finau. “Making a 3 on 18 probably would have been a big deal, but making that putt for birdie, a lot of confidence builders on a day like today, and I’ll carry that with me the rest of the season.”

Rahm never lost his patience. His chip left of the green on the par-5 14th raced 12 feet by the hole, but he hit his best putt of the round and made it for birdie for a one-shot lead.

His wedge to the 15th came up short, and his chip ran 5 by the hole. He made that to stay in front and then had to two-putt from 50 feet on the 16th for his par. Rahm missed a 10-foot birdie putt on the 17th that would have given him room for error.

Still, the closing par 5 at Vidanta Vallarta is easily reachable, and Rahm birdied it the three previous times. This time, his fade stayed straight and instead of dropping into the bunker, it nestled in deep rough on a steep slope just above the sand. He did well to punch that out just over a waste area and into the fairway.

His approach to a back pin just trickled off the green, and he navigated the slick putt perfectly to a few inches. Instead of waiting for Kitayama and Cameron Champ to finish, Rahm quickly stepped in and closed the deal.

“I didn’t think a par 5 that requires a fade that I’d be stressing this much,” Rahm said. “It wasn’t my best putting weekend, but I stayed aggressive. I was confident in what I was doing. I have faith in every part of my game, and it showed.”

Champ, who like Kitayama started the final round two shots behind, took himself out of the mix with a triple bogey on the par-4 eighth hole. He never recovered, shot 70 and finished three shots behind in a tie for sixth.

Rahm has 14 victories worldwide. He had gone 17 starts without winning, matching the longest such streak in his career. The victory moves him a little closer to Scottie Scheffler in his bid to reclaim the No. 1 ranking, and he’ll have another opportunity at the PGA Championship in three weeks.

Rahm has at least one victory in six full years as a pro.

Jon Rahm Named the 2019 European Tour Golfer of the Year

Jon Rahm is the man of the hour…

The 25-year-old Spanish professional golfer has been named the 2019 European Tour Golfer of the Year.

Jon Rahm

Rahm finished the year as the No. 1-ranked player on the Euro Tourwith victories at the Irish OpenSpanish Open and the World Tour Championshipin Dubai.

He finished second at the BMW PGA Championship and Andalucia Masters.

In the United States, Rahm finished tied for ninth at The Masters and tied for third at the U.S. Open.

Rahm was selected by a panel of golf media. Ireland’s Shane Lowry, who won The Open, finished second in the voting.

Rahm joins Seve Ballesteros (1986, 88, 91) and Sergio Garcia (2017) as the third Spaniard to receive the European Tour’s Golfer of the Year award.

Jon Rahm Wins Spanish Open for Second Year in a Row

Jon Rahm is making Spanish golf history…

The 24-year-old Spanish professional golfer won the Spanish Open for a second consecutive year on Sunday, beating Seve Ballesteros‘ record for the fastest Spaniard to reach five European Tour wins.

Jon Rahm

Golfing great Ballesteros needed 49 events to get five wins on the tour. Rahm did so in 39 tournaments after shooting a five-under 66 on the final round to finish 22 under and win by five strokes.

“In front of a home crowd, it’s always really hard for me to keep everything under control and to play the weekend that I did for them,” Rahm said.

“I can’t wait to come back next year and hopefully do it three times. It was unlike anything else. Spanish crowds love golf, they love us coming back. It’s hard to believe how many people come out here.”

Rafa Cabrera Bello (66) was second, followed by another Spaniard, Samuel del Val (68), who was seven strokes back at the Club de Campo Villa.

Starting with a commanding five-shot lead, Rahm had an eagle and four birdies to go with one bogey on the final day.

Rahm shot an eight-under 63 on Saturday to match the course record.

Jon Rahm Wins Hero World Challenge Title

Jon Rahm is Hero

The 24-year-old Spanish professional golferturned a potential shootout into a Bahamas breeze Sunday, closing with a 7-under 65 for a four-shot victory in the Hero World Challenge.

Jon Rahm

Starting the final round in a three-way tie with Tony Finau and Henrik StensonRahm took the lead when Finau made bogey on the par-3 eighth hole, and the Spaniard never trailed the rest of the day at Albany Golf Club.

Finau was the last challenger until the 14th hole, when he went from a sandy area to a bunker and over the green, leading to double bogey. Rahm made birdie on the hole, and suddenly had a five-shot lead without much trouble to get in the way.

Rahm ends his year with three victories, just like in 2017, his first full year as a pro.

Even with his individual trophies, no moment for Rahm will top facing Tiger Woods in the Sunday singles at the Ryder Cup and beating him on the 17th hole, putting the first point on the board for Europe that day. And then Rahm ended his year with Woods handing him the trophy from his holiday event.

“That Sunday with Tiger is still the most emotionally, most important moment of my golf career,” Rahm said. “It means so much to play against Tiger. A couple months later, to win his event, it’s really special.”

Rahm  previously won the CareerBuilder Challenge on the PGA Tour and the Spanish Open on the European Tour.