SAN DIEGO – Jon Rahm is still human.
The Spaniard, 28, made a mess on the fifth hole and let his emotions get the best of him. He posted 2-over-74 at Torrey Pines’ South Course and was T-7.
Rahm bid for three wins consecutively, but he struggled right from the start, shooting 3-over 39 on nine. This was not a factor in determining who the champion of Saturday’s 2023 Farmers Insurance Open.
Rahm finished second in the final round, two strokes behind Sam Ryder. He was trying to be the first player to win three consecutive starts of the PGA Tour, since Dustin Johnson in 2017. Rahm would also have been the World No. He was aiming to become the first player to win three consecutive starts on the PGA Tour since Dustin Johnson in 2017, but he would also have returned as World No.1 for the first time since March 2017.
Rahm said that Torrey Pines was his favorite course. However, in the final round, it became a love-hate relationship.
Rahm, who had a course average of just a shade above 67, was four strokes behind Tiger Woods when he missed a 9-foot putt on the first hole. It only got worse when Rahm drove left into a fairway bunker on the fifth hole. He pulled his approach, and his ball hit the cart path. It bounced left into the rough.
He said, “If it stays in the rough, I have an up and down chance. It hits the cart path. And goes to a dead area.” I was the worst lie in the rough. “I was as dead as I could be when I was in the rough.”
He missed two pitches at the fifth, and had to putt a 9-footer to avoid double bogey. After a par-5 sixth, he got one back with a birdie, but he vented his frustration on the seventh tee box. He slammed his driver’s head into the turf and then found another fairway bunker after his drive failed. Another bogey followed.
Rahm had chances at Nos. Rahm had chances at Nos. 8 and 9, but could not get the putts to fall. Dottie Pepper, CBS’s CBS reporter, noticed that Rahm was spending a few extra seconds standing over the ball on greens. He gained more than two strokes on greens in round three (ranked ninth), but lost more than one stroke to the field in round four (ranked 55 th out of 73).
Rahm could have regained No. 1 with a solo-third or runner-up depending on the reigning World No. Rory McIlroy finishes the Hero Dubai Desert Classic on Monday’s DP World Tour. That was irrelevant as Rahm, who shot from T-116 to win the Hero Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour (concluding Monday), couldn’t make a charge to maintain his hot streak. His final round 74 at Torrey Pines was higher than his rounds of 75, 77 and 78 on the South Course at the 2018 Farmers Insurance Open.
He said, “I knew it was going to be tough.” “I knew that a couple below would have had a chance, but it just wasn’t for me.”
He’s still a force to reckon with and will next tee off at the WM Phoenix Open in Phoenix, which is not far from Arizona State where he played in two weeks.
