Jon Rahm – file photo

A stunning final round of 63 has seen Jon Rahm come from seven shots off the 54 hole lead and win the Sentry Tournament of Champions by two over long-time leader, Collin Morikawa with a further two shots back to Tom Hoge and Max Homa.

After being twice runner-up in five previous starts in the event at Kapalua on Maui, it was perhaps justice for the still only 28 year old Spaniard who will remain in 5th place in the World Ranking despite the win.

To add further lustre to his win, Rahm was forced to overcome a bogey at his very first hole before unleashing five birdies in his next eight holes to turn in 32 and then added four birdies and an eagle on the way home to sweep past a faltering Morikawa who had led or co-led from his opening 64.

Morikawa still led with five holes to go but bogeys at the 14^th 15^th and 16^th and Rahm’s brilliant finish which included an eagle from ten feet at the 16^th saw the lead change and although Morikawa birdied the last it was all a case of too little too late.

“You never want to see somebody have a bad day down the stretch,” said Rahm. “But I feel like with that lead he had I needed to play really good and he needed to make a couple mistakes.

“Obviously everything turned with that run on 12, 13, 14 and making that eagle putt on 15. At that point I got in the thick of things and never did I think that going into my third shot on 17 I was going to have a one-shot lead.

“That’s when I had to change a bit of the mindset of chasing and needing birdies to, All right, let’s get this up-and-down, hopefully birdie 18 and give ourselves the best chance.

“Last year, I feel like I played an amazing tournament, I could have won it. To come back this year and shoot a very low score again, I mean, I’m what, 60-under par in these last two tournaments? (Laughing.) It would have been tough to shoot that low twice and not win it. So I’m glad I had the chance and I’m glad I did it.”

Rahm was referring to the 33 under par he recorded 12 months ago only to lose to Cameron Smith.

Morikawa was burned by the demise and said as much when asked his thoughts after the round.

“Sadness. I don’t know. It sucks,” he said. “You work so hard and you give yourself these opportunities and just bad timing on bad shots and kind of added up really quickly.

Don’t know what I’m going to learn from this week, but it just didn’t seem like it was that far off. It really wasn’t. Yeah, it sucks.”

Adam Scott was the only Australian in the field and finished in 29^th place amongst the field of 38 who finished the event.

The PGA Tour now moves to Honolulu for the traditional follow up to the Tournament of Champions where Scott will be joined by fellow Australians Aaron Baddeley, Cam Davis, Harrison Endycott and New Zealander Danny Lee.

SCORES

 

Adam Scott plays his 8th Tournament of Champions – photo PGA of Australia

The PGA Tour begins its 2023 calendar schedule this week with the now traditional staging of the Sentry Tournament of Champions for winners and those otherwise eligible from performances in the previous calendar year, but twelve months on from Cameron Smith’s first of five titles in 2022 things have changed for the once Holy Grail of professional golf.

Players such as Smith and Joaquin Niemann who would have qualified to play at Kapalua have left to join LIV Golf and the world number one, Rory McIlroy, has made the decision to give the event a miss despite it being one of the now 13 ‘elevated’ events the PGA Tour promotes to attract the best players into events where prizemoney begins at US$15 million and in some cases reaches US$20 million per event.

Clearly, this has been a reaction to the money on offer for players who have switched to LIV but in order to play the events, players, as members of the PGA Tour, must commit to all but one and in the case of McIlroy he has decided to extend his Xmas / New Year break and begin later in the season as he has done regularly.

39 winners or those otherwise eligible from the 2022 year are in the field including last year’s runner-up Jon Rahm, Patrick Cantlay (4^th last year) and world number 2 Scottie Scheffler who did not play in 2022 as it was not until Phoenix in February that his amazing run began.

Adam Scott is the only Australasian in the field, the 42 year old earning the right to play not because of winning in 2022, but having made the Tour Championship he benefits from a newly introduced category.

Scott has only seven previous starts in the event for two top tens, often preferring to start his season later in the year but he does come off a runner-up finish at the Australian Open and as Australia’s flag carrier this week his progress will be watched with interest.

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