by tyler | May 1, 2023 | CNN, golf
Despite Tiger Woods’ best efforts to dispel the idea, wins are incredibly hard to come by on the PGA Tour. So when they do arrive, the celebrations can be emphatic: Tony Finau does things a little differently.
Hours after clinching the Mexico Open title with a three-shot win over world No. 1 Jon Rahm on Sunday, the American was back out on the greens. But Finau wasn’t retracing the steps of his victory at Vidanta Vallarta – he was at the nearby Lakes Course, caddying for two of his sons during some night-time par three action.
Under the lights, the champion lugged a pair of bags as the two youngsters scampered ahead, as seen in footage shared to Twitter by the PGA Tour.
The pictures will have come as no surprise to anyone who watched Netflix’s “Full Swing,” wherein Finau charmed viewers in his starring role as a devoted family man traveling the world with his wife Alayna and five children.
The docuseries saw the 33-year-old revisit his childhood home in Salt Lake City and humble beginnings before he made it as a pro golfer. On Sunday, his sixth PGA Tour victory fell on El Día Del Niño – Children’s Day in Mexico – and Finau had a message for youngsters.
“Keep working hard and keep believing in yourself, there’s nothing that you aren’t able to achieve with hard work and some faith in what you’re doing,” Finau told reporters.
“That’s coming from someone I would say that’s very similar to the upbringing of a lot of kids in Mexico. You don’t have to have the resources, but if you have a desire and you work really hard, you never know what you can accomplish and what you can become. Hopefully, I’ve inspired some of these kids as they’ve been out here watching me and inspire them to do some great things.
“I’m not really anybody special. When I was a kid, I was just like them, I didn’t come from very much, but I put a lot of sacrifice and hard work into becoming a great golfer. If you do that, then you can do some great things.”
“Full Swing” posed the question of whether Finau could balance his family commitments with his pursuit of silverware. The American has answered that query emphatically.
Having finished joint runner-up to Rahm at last year’s Mexico Open, Finau derailed the Spaniard’s title defense to clinch his fourth win in his last 18 starts and jump five places to world No. 11.
While a major title remains elusive, triumph over the newly-crowned Masters champion and the game’s most in-form player is a morale boost ahead of the PGA Championship later this month.
“Any time you can battle with a guy like Jon Rahm who’s in the form that he was and come out on top, it makes me feel good,” Finau said.
“Rahm is a good friend of mine, we practice quite a bit together so having ‘Rahmbo’ as like a sparring partner for me has only made me better and I hope he can say the same.
“As far as my future, you never know what your future holds, but take it a day at a time and this is a nice step in the right direction on my season. We’ll just continue to stack up hopefully some wins and some major championships in the future.”
by tyler | May 1, 2023 | CNN, golf
It’s been quite the year for Jon Rahm – and he’s got the prize money to prove it.
A runner-up finish at the Mexico Open on Sunday took the Spaniard’s PGA Tour season earnings to $14,462,840, setting a new Tour record for money earned in a single season.
Denied a defense of his title by Tony Finau, Masters champion Rahm took home $839,300 at Vidanta Vallarta to eclipse the previous record set by Scottie Scheffler last season. The American also won at Augusta en route to banking $14,046,910 across 25 events last year.
Rahm has blown past Scheffler’s sum in just 12 outings, boosted by imperious form and increased prize money at the PGA Tour’s select “designated events.” Three of the world No. 1’s four wins have come at designated events: his victories at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, The Genesis Invitational and The Masters totaling $9 million in winner’s earnings.
And there is ample time for Rahm to stretch the record even further.
There are nine designated events – including three majors – left to play before the season wraps up with the Tour Championship in Atlanta in late August.
However, Rahm and Scheffler will miss their first elevated event of the season on Thursday, with both absent from the field for the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow in North Carolina.
Golfers are permitted to skip one designated event per season but will see money deducted from their Player Impact Performance (PIP) earnings for subsequent absences. Rory McIlroy is set to lose $3 million (25%) of his PIP pay after withdrawing from the RBC Heritage last month, having already missed the Sentry Tournament of Champions in January, according to Reuters.
With $49,486,883 in total earnings since joining the PGA Tour in 2016, Rahm looks set to pass the $50 million mark imminently upon his return.
Rahm finished three shots adrift of a $1.386 million payout and a fifth victory of the season as Finau took his revenge at the Mexico Open.
The American had finished joint-second, one shot shy, of Rahm at last year’s event, but improved his total by eight shots to end on 24-under and clinch his sixth PGA Tour title.
Finau began the final round with a two-shot advantage over Rahm and shot five birdies to card a five-under 66.
A bogey at the penultimate hole derailed any hope of the Spaniard retaining his title, a prospect that had been on the cards after he shot a course record 10-under 61 on Saturday, equaling his lowest ever PGA Tour round.
Given his form, Rahm looks well-placed to add to his two majors and 11 PGA Tour titles this year, but the 28-year-old is keeping his feet firmly on the ground. Narrowly missing out on victory reminded Rahm of a quote from golfing great Arnold Palmer: “The path to success is always under construction.”
“It’s a great reminder that what you’ve done means absolutely nothing, you still have to go out there and do it,” Rahm told reporters.
“Obviously, I wanted to win, but it’s a reminder that everybody out here is a great player and Tony came out with a two-shot lead and played fantastic golf. I feel like, had I been able to pressure him a little more, we would have seen more birdies from Tony.
“It’s like I said, a great reminder of what I still need to do to be able to keep winning tournaments, and if you ask me, that’s almost a blessing in life, to know that the work is not really done.
“It’s never done, the search is ever ongoing.”
by tyler | Apr 17, 2023 | CNN, golf
Matt Fitzpatrick conquered reigning champion Jordan Spieth in a playoff to seal an emotional RBC Heritage victory at Hilton Head on Sunday.
With the duo unable to be separated at 17-under par after an enthralling final day battle, the Englishman broke the deadlock in stunning fashion on the third playoff hole, punching his approach shot to within inches of the cup before tapping home for birdie to clinch his second PGA Tour title.
His first had come after a similarly close-fought final round at the US Open in Brookline last year. There had been a late scare then when his last tee shot found the bunker, and the 28-year-old’s heart rate will have been just as high when both of Spieth’s putts for birdie across the first two playoff holes looked destined to settle in the cup.
Yet once again, Fitzpatrick endured, weathering the storm to become only the second Englishman to win the tournament after Nick Faldo in 1984.
Victory jumps him to a career-high world No. 8 and seals him $3.6 million in prize money from a $20 million purse, elevated by the tournament’s status as a designated event on the PGA Tour.
It also marks a win at a course with a special significance to Fitzpatrick. Though born and bred in Sheffield, family holidays spent at Hilton Head Island meant a win at Harbor Town Golf Links was a bucket list item for the Englishman.
“I think I can retire now,” Fitzpatrick joked to reporters.
“This one is the one that I’ve always wanted to win. [Of] any golf tournament – other than the majors, of course – there isn’t a higher one on my list than to win this one, and that’s the truth.
“My family can tell you that, and my friends can tell you the same thing. This place is just a special place for me, and it means the world to have won it.”
Having taken a one-shot lead into the final round, Fitzpatrick exchanged the lead multiple times with Spieth, seeking to defend his title after a playoff victory over Patrick Cantlay a year ago. Cantlay again impressed but came up narrowly short, finishing one stroke adrift of the score needed to join the leading duo in the playoff.
Spieth was roared on by the South Carolina crowd as he and Fitzpatrick replayed the 17th and 18th holes, with chants of ‘U-S-A’ audible at multiple points during the playoff. The Dallas-born world No. 9 could be seen gesturing to fans for quiet, but Fitzpatrick was unfazed, a magnificent approach leaving his American rival needing to make a birdie from close to 40 feet at the 18th to prolong the contest.
“When you’re the underdog or the person that everyone is not rooting for, it’s obviously a little bit sweeter when you do win, there’s no doubt about that,” Fitzpatrick said.
“Obviously the U-S-A and the Spieth chants were louder, but I definitely had support out here, and I felt that because of my connection here.”
Spieth’s effort rolled wide to compound another agonizing runner-up finish, his 18th on the PGA Tour since his first year as a pro in 2013 and four more than any other player during the same period, according to the PGA Tour.
The two-time major champion had looked set to become a 14-time PGA Tour winner on both the first two playoff holes, only for his first birdie putt to lip out and his second to pull up inches short.
Spieth, who arrived in South Carolina off the back of an impressive tied-fourth showing at The Masters last week, had lifted his putter in celebration as his first effort had rolled towards the hole.
His disbelief remained even after Fitzpatrick’s victory was sealed.
“I think if I hit the same putt 10 times, it goes in eight times. It should go left at the very end there on the grain. It just wasn’t meant to be,” Spieth told reporters.
“Someone was going to make a birdie. It wasn’t going to be a bogey to lose that playoff the way that we were both playing today … He [Fitzpatrick] just snuck in and played some tremendous golf.”
by tyler | Apr 10, 2023 | CNN, golf
The Masters is over for another year but there is another tournament to look forward to on the horizon.
Golf Digest is launching a new national, two-person team best-ball tournament allowing amateur golfers to compete for a $1,000 cash prize as well as inclusion in an upcoming issue of the magazine.
The Golf Digest Open will consist of eight regional qualifiers contested by 400 teams over the summer before 32 teams will advance to a two-day national championship on October 30 and 31st.
“We’ve just launched and we’ve already seen registrations. We think we’re going to sell out real fast,” Joshua Stern, Golf Digest’s Vice-President of Business Operations and Marketing Partnerships, told CNN’s Don Riddell.
The top two teams from each qualifier in both the Gross and Net divisions will play in the national championship, held at the brand new OMNI PGA Frisco Resort in Texas, which is set to host a number of prestigious events, including the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in 2025 and the men’s PGA Championship in 2027.
There, the teams with the lowest cumulative 36-hole score in each division will be crowned champions.
“It’s going to feel very competitive because we’re doing gross and net divisions so the opportunity for a golfer of any skill to participate and actually win their local qualifying tournament and get into the national championship will be high,” Stern said.
Timed to coincide with golf’s expansion after the Covid-19 pandemic, the Golf Digest Open “could become the new national amateur tournament,” Stern added.
The entry fee for the qualifiers is $500 per player, covering greens fees, cart fees, practice range access, breakfast and/or lunch, and a gift, while entry for the National Championship costs $1,000 per player including green fees, two-nights accommodation at the resort and meals for the duration of the national championship.
The tournament begins on June 12 at The Standard Club in Atlanta, a Golf Digest Best in State course, and the Mesa Country Club, which was designed by the man who built the famed Torrey Pines Golf Course. Among the other courses hosting events are Kemper Lakes Golf Club, host of the 1989 PGA Championship, and Aviara Golf Club in California, which hosts the annual LPGA Tour event.
To learn more and sign up for the Golf Digest Open, please click here.
Golf Digest shares parent company Warner Bros. Discovery with CNN.
by tyler | Apr 10, 2023 | CNN, golf
Jon Rahm won the 2023 Masters on Sunday, clinching his first green jacket and second career major with an unflappable showing at Augusta National.
The Spaniard put on a clinic in consistency to ease to a four shot victory ahead of LIV Golf Series duo Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson.
After two days of miserable weather had seen multiple suspensions of play at the 87th edition of the historic major, it was fitting that blue skies and sunshine set the backdrop for the crowning of Rahm, whose victory sees him leapfrog reigning Masters champion Scottie Scheffler as world No. 1.
Having begun his tournament with a four-putt double bogey, Rahm recovered immediately and never looked back, carding a final round three-under 69 to finish 12-under.
On the birthday of late Spanish golf icon Seve Ballesteros – champion in 1980 and 1983 – Rahm became the fourth Spaniard to win the green jacket and the first European golfer to win both The Masters and the US Open, following victory at Torrey Pines in 2021.
Ballesteros, José María Olazábal, and Sergio Garcia were the only three of Rahm’s compatriots to have donned the green jacket previously, and Olazábal was one of the first to embrace the tearful new champion at the 18th green.
“History of the game is a big part of why I play and one of the reasons why I play, Seve being one of them,” Rahm said.
“If it wasn’t for that Ryder Cup in ’97, my dad and I talk about it all the time, we don’t know where I would be or where as a family we would be.
“For me to get it done on the 40th anniversary of his win, his birthday, on Easter Sunday, it’s incredibly meaningful … I know he was pulling for me today.”
Rahm made short work of the two shot lead taken into the final round by Koepka, who slid to a frustrating three-over 75 finish. The American had held at least a share of the lead from the end of the first round, but saw his dreams of a first green jacket and fifth career major fade quickly amid Rahm’s relentless afternoon charge.
Mickelson rolled back the years with a final round-best 65 to become the oldest golfer ever to finish inside the top-five at the major. A three-time green jacket winner, the 52-year-old was all smiles as he eased round Augusta with eight birdies.
It marks the lowest round ever posted by a player aged 50 or above, coming a day after Fred Couples became the oldest player to ever make the cut at the major.
Jordan Spieth shot nine birdies in a blistering closing 66 to finish on seven-under. The 2015 champion finished level with Russell Henley and Patrick Reed, who made it three LIV Golf players inside the top four.
A defense of the title looked unlikely from the moment Scheffler endured a frustrating second round 75, the American finishing eight shots adrift of Rahm, tied for 10th.
Leading amateur Sam Bennett won hearts and plaudits after a superb week at Augusta. The 23-year-old Texan – who has a tattoo of his late father’s final piece of advice inscribed on his wrist – shot 76 to finish tied for 16th on his Masters debut.
After two days of miserable conditions and stop-start action, clear blue skies finally broke above Augusta National on Sunday, prompting the green light for the race to escape a first Monday finish at the major since 1983.
A battle to beat the clock had already ensued Saturday after bad weather Friday – featuring winds strong enough to fell three large pine trees – had suspended play overnight and left several players needing to finish their second rounds.
That group included Rahm, who cut Koepka’s lead to two before the duo paired with Bennett to trudge through six holes of a rain-soaked third round Saturday. By the time the horn sounded to suspend play, Koepka’s four stroke cushion had been restored – the American weathering the storm expertly while his Spanish rival lost ground with back-to-back bogeys.
Sunday’s bright weather brought a more familiar feel to the picturesque terrain of Augusta National, but there was no familiar sight of Tiger Woods’ classic Sunday red. Despite visibly struggling with movement throughout the weekend, the 15-time major champion had battled to a record-equaling 23rd cut, only to announce his withdrawal due to injury hours before play resumed on Sunday.
Having admitted to being in “constant” pain after his opening round, pictures of the 47-year-old – rooted to the bottom of the leaderboard – hobbling towards his golf bag during his final holes of the weekend will only intensify questions of whether the five-time Masters champion will ever play the major again.
Rahm had once again moved to within two strokes of Koepka as the pair approached the first tee for the final time, after the duo both carded one-over 72’s in the third round hours earlier.
Koepka’s opening drive found the fairway: the ninth fairway. Yet the American recovered superbly from his wild opening hook, planting his follow-up onto the green before saving par.
His relief didn’t last long. After Rahm sunk his first birdie of the day at the third, Koepka made bogeys at four and six. For the first time since the second hole on Friday, there was a new outright leader at the summit.
Smelling blood, a steely-eyed Rahm accelerated, tapping home for birdie after knocking a brilliant approach to within a few feet at the eighth to move two clear. Koepka, meanwhile, was fading, dropping two more shots by the 12th hole.
To make matters worse for the LIV Golf star, those behind had gathered momentum. Though Mickelson and Spieth ultimately left their charges too late to snatch victory, Koepka’s slide jumped Mickelson – already back in the clubhouse – up into solo second.
It was fitting encapsulation of the day that when a frustrated Koepka finally converted his first birdie of the afternoon at the 13th – snapping a 22 hole streak without one – Rahm matched his effort mere seconds later.
Any hopes of Koepka’s boost sparking a dramatic comeback were crushed at the following hole, as he bogeyed once again before Rahm coolly rolled home for birdie.
What had looked set to be an enthralling two-horse race had turned into a canter. Up ahead, American duo Reed and Henley were running out of time to challenge, and even back-to-back birdies for Koepka at the 15th and 16th only cut the gap to three.
Carrying a four shot lead into the final hole, there was a momentary scare for Rahm – perhaps his first genuine fright of the day – as his tee drive went sailing towards the trees.
It made for scenes reminiscent of a year ago, when runaway leader Scheffler made a wobbly finish, four-putting to close. Yet, once again, the outcome was the same – Rahm hit a provisional only to later find his original ball had bounced back onto the fairway.
A phenomenal approach onto the green allowed Rahm to fully bask in a champion’s ovation from the Augusta patrons. The ball had barely hit the bottom of the cup before Rahm had dropped his putter, raising his arms and head to the sky to toast a dominant triumph.
by tyler | Apr 10, 2023 | CNN, golf
Jon Rahm’s winning margin at the Masters of four shots suggested he had everything his own way over the weekend.
But the gap between the Spaniard and his closest rivals, LIV Golf Series duo Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson, might have been even larger if it wasn’t for a contribution from a Super Bowl winning tight end.
Despite being the embodiment of consistency in Sunday’s final round to claim his first green jacket and second career major at Augusta National, Rahm’s eventual title charge couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start.
On the first hole of his opening round, Rahm had some uncharacteristic struggles as he four-putted for a double bogey on the first hole’s undulating green.
Although he was able to recover over the course of the weekend and eventually claim his maiden Masters title, Rahm joked afterward that some text messages from Super Bowl winning tight end Zach Ertz jinxed his abilities on the opening hole.
“For those people who believe in jinxing other players, people or whatever it may be, Thursday morning when I was getting on my golf cart to get to this putting green. Ten minutes before my tee time, I saw a text from a good friend of mine,” Rahm, dressed in his newly acquired green jacket, explained to reporters.
“I’m going to name him because he is a Super Bowl winning champion – Zach Ertz – he sent the text: ‘That first green looking like a walk in the park,’ 10 minutes before I four-putted the start of the tournament.”
With a smile, Rahm continued: “So, thank you Zach, don’t ever do that again please.”
Ertz – who won Super Bowl LII with the Philadelphia Eagles and now plays for the Arizona Cardinals – acknowledged the texts and said he had no regrets.
“I apologize for absolutely nothing!” he tweeted. “You can expect these texts every major going forward my friend! Congratulations!”
Ertz’s former Cardinals teammate JJ Watt, who retired at the end of the 2022 season, tweeted out screenshots of messages sent to a group chat called “Birdies and Babies” which included Rahm, Ertz and Watt which seemed to corroborate Rahm’s story with the caption: “Can confirm. I think this means you deserve a green jacket (Ertz).”
Ertz text the group saying “Let’s have a day Jon!! Start fast!!” to which Watt replied: “Let’s go Jon!!! Pretend you’re playing with Zach and I. You’ll set the course record!”
He followed up with: “First hole green looks like a walk in the park.”
Watt also included a screenshot of a private text message exchange with Ertz. The tight end said: “4 putt to start the round… not ideal.” Watt replied: “Horrendous. I said pretend you’re playing WITH us not like your playing LIKE us,” which Ertz responded with a pair of laughing emojis.
Despite the opening hole double bogey, Rahm wasn’t hampered for long, grabbing birdies on the following two holes as he shot an impressive seven-under opening-round 65.
And he continued his steady rise up the leaderboard over the course of a disrupted four days, showing exemplary consistency to win the 2023 Masters.
