Jon Rahm struck a shocking final-round 63, capped by a birdie on the 18th, to pull off a outstanding comeback win on the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii; Collin Morikawa started the day with a six-shot lead and was seven clear after masking the primary six holes in three underneath par
Last Updated: 09/01/23 7:14am
Jon Rahm pulled off an unlikely triumph on the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii
Jon Rahm amazingly overturned a seven-shot deficit, with a major serving to hand from Collin Morikawa, to declare a outstanding victory in the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii.
Morikawa started the day with a six-shot lead and was seven clear after masking the primary six holes in three underneath par, however wouldn’t make one other birdie till the 18th and step by step noticed his benefit whittled away at Kapalua.
Rahm, who shot 33 underneath par in ending runner-up to Cameron Smith final yr, recovered from a bogey on the primary with eight birdies in the subsequent 13 holes after which holed from 12 ft for an eagle on the par-five fifteenth.
That took the previous world No 1 to inside one of the lead and moments later he was tied, Morikawa thinning a bunker shot on the 14th throughout the inexperienced to drop his first shot of the whole week.
Morikawa, who squandered a five-shot lead and the prospect to turn into world No 1 in the ultimate spherical of the Hero World Challenge in December 2021, was understandably feeling the strain and duffed his pitch to the par-five fifteenth to card a second consecutive bogey.
Collin Morikawa gave up a seven-shot final-round lead at Kapalua
Spinning his strategy to the sixteenth off the entrance of the inexperienced value Morikawa a 3rd straight bogey and Rahm’s birdie on the 18th successfully sealed victory thanks to a shocking closing 63.
At 27 underneath par Rahm completed two photographs forward of Morikawa, whose birdie on the 18th accomplished a ultimate spherical of 72.
“If you told me at the beginning of the round, after that bogey, I was going to do what I did I don’t know if I would have believed you,” Rahm advised NBC.
“But at that point, it’s not like winning is really that in mind, you’ve just got to get to work and start making birdies and that’s what I did.
Rahm sealed victory with a birdie on the 18th gap
“On 15 is when it actually grew to become actuality, after I had that putt to get inside one shot and understanding how good I used to be enjoying, 16 and 18 are good birdie choices.
“That putt went in and then on 17, I couldn’t believe it when I missed the green and we had a one-shot lead. It took quite an effort to just settle myself down and change my mindset.”
Morikawa admitted to reporters he was feeling “sadness” after play ended.
“Sadness. I don’t know. It sucks. You work so hard and you give yourself these opportunities and just bad timing on bad shots and kind of added up really quickly”, he stated.
“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.”
He was additionally requested if Sunday’s end result marked the spotlight or lowlight of his skilled profession.
“Of my career so far? I would say so,” he replied.
“Can’t really think of anything else. Yeah, it’s hard to look at the positives, it really is.”
The California product, nonetheless, did say the end result couldn’t be in contrast to the world problem in December 2021.
“Hero is different. Hero started off bad, never found it, never felt good, just bad. Today it felt fine. Just made three poor swings, really, at the wrong times. It’s never a good time to put a poor swing on it, but sometimes it works out and these never worked out.”
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