Jon Rahm scores third win of PGA Tour season at 2023 Genesis Invitational to climb back to No. 1
When Genesis Invitational host Tiger Woods congratulated Jon Rahm on his win, Rahm told him he was just trying to imitate Woods.
“He said, ‘I’ve never won here,'” Rahm recounted. That wasn’t my most accurate week, but I thought, ‘At least I looked like you off the tee this week.’
But my irons were always strong, my short game was strong, and I didn’t have my best stuff today, but I held on when I needed to.”
Rahm watched his three-stroke lead disappear heading into the final round as Max Homa birdied five of his first 10 holes, but Rahm never quit and finished with two birdies in his final five holes to shoot a 2-under 69 at Riviera Country Club. on Sunday to reclaim the No. 1.
Official World Golf Ranking: No. 1 title.
Rahm admitted that despite shooting a third-round 65 in the last four rounds at the Riviera on Saturday, he was nervous heading home last night because so much is at stake.
“I’m a human being after all, and I’m aware of the magnitude of this moment and this golf course, right? I’ve never had three PGA Tour wins in a season and to do it this early is unbelievable and to do it on this golf course. To talk about Riviera’s history as a golf course and Tiger Woods’ history as a player, those two combined in this tournament, that’s a pretty big deal. As a historian of the game, to win a tournament hosted by Tiger and a tournament hosted by Jack (Nicklaus at the Memorial) is incredible,” he said.
What calmed him down? With his two young children, he slipped effortlessly into dad mode.
“From 5 p.m. until he went down, two, two and a half hours, I completely forget what’s going on and what I’m doing,” he explained. Because of stuff like that, returning home after a round of golf or a golf tournament has become much simpler ever since they arrived.
The final round is shaping up to be a showdown worthy of the bright lights of Hollywood. Rahm and Homa were the two best performers on the West Coast Swing, and the Riviera was a perfect ball-striking paradise to tie the score.
Homa was hot and grabbed a share of the lead for a hot minute,
But Rahm responded with a birdie on No. 7 and it looked like he might cruise to victory after his sand wedge on No. 8 from 127 yards on a flight lie from Hrubko trickled down to the hole for birdie and Homa three-putted from 35 feet to fall three shots back.”If you told me on the ninth tee after that tee shot that I was going to be one back in 13 tees, I wouldn’t have believed you because I felt so good,” Rahm said. “But it’s golf and this course especially, this course can get you.
Riviera bit back, but so did Homa, who birdied the 9th and 10th, and Rahm needed to sink a 6-foot putt after reaching a bunker just to save a bogey on the passable par-4 10th. Afterward, Rahm watched the 10 reps in the clubhouse and wrote it down, “sickness up and down.”
“I keep telling people it’s a nightmare,” Rahm’s caddy Adam Hayes said. “It’s an unsettling feeling.
Rahm’s lead was gone and he found himself behind after three putts on No. 12. Homa,
Who finished with a 68, coughed up the lead with a poor tee shot that led to a bogey at the 13th.
“I wanted him to beat me and I think I did. I let him off the hook on 13, but it was great to see me push him and not feel like I had 100 percent of my game,” he said.
By the 14th hole, Rahm sank a 46-foot birdie putt from the edge to take the lead for good.
He took advantage of the moment on the 158-yard par-3 16th, hitting an 8-iron to within 3 feet — “That was probably the best swing of the week,” he said — for another easy birdie. Homa almost tripped the Kikuyu grass green at 18 for birdie, which would have put some pressure on Rahm, but he hit the stick and didn’t fall.
“I simply wanted to push him because I didn’t want it to stop, and when it missed, that was it,” Homa allegedly said.
“I’m not disappointed with my golf, I’m just disappointed with the finish. Rahm won his 10th PGA Tour championship with a 72-hole total of 17-under 267.
In 14 under, Patrick Cantlay (67) took third place. Will Zalatoris finish fourth after carding the day’s best round of 7 under par?
A remarkable West Coast Swing capped off Rahm’s third win in his last five races and fifth world title in his last nine starts. He finished no worse than tied for seventh on the PGA Tour this season.
Finally, the mathematical algorithm that is OWGR must spit out numbers confirming what most golf fans already knew: Rahm is currently the best.