Jon Rahm, the highest-ranked golfer worldwide, will enter the Players Championship for the second consecutive year.
He also feels a little humbled when he arrives at TPC Sawgrass. That’s what golf will do.
Rahm flew in a remarkable golf plane during the first two months 2023 and won his third victory since the Genesis Invitational three weeks ago. This was the culmination of an incredible stretch of finishes on PGA Tour: T-4 to T-8, 1, 1, 1, T-7, and 3, 1. Since Johnny Miller in 1975, he is the first golfer to win three consecutive times in a calendar-year before March 1.
Rahm is the leader in the PGA Tour’s scoring average (68.855) and birdie average (5.32), scoring average for par-3 (2.82) as well as top-10 finishes (six).
He opened the Arnold Palmer Invitational last Thursday with a 65, which seemed to suggest he was going to just keep trucking. But, a 4-over score of 76 in round two cooled his nerves. He finished tied for 39th.
He said Tuesday at TPC Sawgrass, “I think that when things are going well for so many years, the golf gods decide they want to humble you a bit.” “It was my turn for that for a few days. But I was back on Sunday and finished strong over the final seven holes. From 12-18, I played seven great holes. That was something I was very happy about. Keep going. It’s not worth looking into. It’s just golf and a few bad days.
Rahm and other top Tour players are competing in the richest tournament pro golf. The prize pool is $25 million and there’s a $4.5million first-place check. The Tour’s flagship event was already a part of the deal, but the Tour responded to the threat from the LIV Golf League by increasing the prize pool.
Rahm is a long-standing supporter of PGA Tour, but freely admits that changes to the schedule or the prize money were made because of the breakaway league.
“Oh, it’s LIV golf. Without a doubt. He said that without LIV Golf, it wouldn’t have happened.” “So, to a certain extent, as I’ve stated before, we should be grateful that this threat has caused the PGA Tour to want to change things. It was something I also said last week. It would have been nice if it wasn’t for the PGA Tour being under pressure from someone else to make the changes and make it better for players. But it was what we needed. It’s because of LIV Golf that we have all of this.
Rahm doesn’t judge those who have left the Tour for LIV, but he is happy right now.
He said, “If they aren’t happy with the product they can do whatever they want.” I believe that the PGA Tour is the best platform for professional golfers. They are very different products, and they have many differences. It’s not the exact same.
“Like I have said before, I don’t tell people what they should do with their lives or their careers. The changes happening right now are positive and very, very encouraging. It will only make it more so. The best players in the world will play together more often which, at the end, is what the fans want. That’s why I don’t know the exact answer.
Rahm is currently in the top 10, tied for ninth in 2021, and has not missed the cut in any of his five previous starts at Players.
By: Todd Kelly
Title: Humbled a bit at Arnold Palmer Invitational, top-ranked Jon Rahm ready for Players Championship
Sourced From: golfweek.usatoday.com/2023/03/07/jon-rahm-humbled-golf-gods-ready-2023-players-championship/
Published Date: Tue, 07 Mar 2023 21:43:38 +0000
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