Golf: Spain's Rahm in three-way tie for PGA Tour lead at Kapalua
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Jon Rahm hits his chip shot on the 14th hole during the first round of the Sentry Tournament of Champions.
PHOTO: USA TODAY SPORTS
LOS ANGELES – World No. 5 Jon Rahm finished strong on Thursday to join two-time Major winner Collin Morikawa and J.J. Spaun atop the leaderboard after the opening round of the US PGA Tour’s Tournament of Champions in Hawaii.
Morikawa and Spaun were both in the clubhouse at Kapalua on nine-under 64 when Rahm birdied three of his last four holes to join them.
Morikawa had raced up the leaderboard with six straight birdies from the 10th hole. He finished with nine birdies in all, as did Spaun, who strung together four in a row from the 12th.
Rahm followed a birdie bomb at the fourth hole with a 19-foot eagle putt at the fifth.
He was two shots off the lead after birdies at the sixth, eighth, 10th and 12th when he bogeyed the 14th, where he was unable to get up and down from a greenside bunker.
He responded with birdies at the 15th, 16th and 18th for a share of the lead.
“I made a lot of good swings out there,” Rahm said, but added he thought his best shot of the day was the 20-foot birdie putt at the 10th.
“After somehow leaving a six-footer short and not hitting my best shots on nine, to come back and make that 20-footer was a big thing.”
In 2022, Rahm came up a shot behind tournament winner Cameron Smith, who finished with the lowest 72-hole tournament score in US PGA Tour history with a 34-under total.
“It was a great battle. If we get to that point again, hopefully it’s me and hopefully I end up winning by one,” Rahm added.
Morikawa, winner of the 2020 PGA Championship and the 2021 British Open, has slipped to 11th in the world after a largely unrewarding 2022.
However, he said recent work on various parts of his game with specialist coaches was paying dividends, particularly with his putting.
“Speed control was a big one,” he said of his improvements on the greens.
“I think today I did a pretty good part on that, just kind of dripping them in – having really good speed. I think I had one or two putts that were just a little off.”
The leading trio were a stroke in front of rising South Korean star Kim Joo-hyung, who carded an eight-under 65 that featured two eagles. AFP
