Jon Rahm Wins Memorial, Moves to No. 1 in World Rankings
Jon Rahm captured his fourth PGA TOUR win at the Memorial Tournament and ascended to the top spot in the world rankings at event hosted by Jack Nicklaus.
Rahm made the turn with an eight shot lead that quickly began to shrink following a bogey and a double bogey on Nos. 10 and 11. Then playing partner Ryan Palmer birdied No. 12. Rahm bogeyed No. 14 and the insurmountable eight shot lead was suddenly down to three shots at the same venue that saw Justin Thomas lose a three shot lead with three holes to play last week at the Workday Charity Open.
The conditions were eerily similar to a major championship in the week that was originally scheduled to have been the Open Championship. The Muirfield Village golf course was playing firm and fast and the weather that included a near-50 minute delay rain delay and gusty winds for much of the afternoon. The final-round scoring average of 75.959 was the highest in a round on the PGA TOUR since the first round of the 2018 U.S. Open (76.474) and highest at a non-major since the final round of the 2016 Farmers Insurance Open (77.901).
“Conditions were so tough. I knew I wasn’t going to play 18 perfect holes. I knew at some point something was going to go south. For the most part on the front nine, I got pretty good breaks, and I was able to get it done,” Rahm said. “If it’s a difficult golf course on a regular day, imagine when they’re ready to basically let the greens die, fairways die. It was so firm out there, so windy, and then we started to get a little drizzle, that it’s just no easy task. Any miss is going to be heavily penalized, and I was fully aware.”
Rahm’s previous win on the PGA TOUR was in April 2019 at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, a two-man team event that he won with Ryan Palmer, so it was serendipitous that he was playing alongside Palmer when he passed Rory McIlroy to rise to No. 1 in the world and join Seve Ballesteros as the only Spaniards to hold the top spot.
“I’m incredibly proud to sit here and be the Memorial Tournament champion, win an event on the PGA TOUR four years in a row, No. 1 in the world. There’s a lot of accomplishments today that are hard to believe I’ve done so early in my career,” Rahm said. “You know, first win as a married man, which feels honestly really, really cool. I wish the rest of my family could be here with me, but for obvious reasons they can’t. And I just hope everybody stays safe and we can get over this as soon as possible and we can enjoy life as it was before.”
Rahm’s dramatic chip-in for birdie on No. 16 that essentially sealed the win only added to the wild afternoon as it was determined that his ball moved after he addressed it. He was assessed a General Penalty (two strokes) for a violation of Rule 9.4 after a ball at rest moved and his score on the par-3 16th was adjusted to a four instead of a two. In the end, it simply translated to Rahm winning by three instead of five shots.
Rahm is now one of four players with at least one PGA TOUR victory in each of the last four seasons joining Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau.
For his efforts this week, Rahm earned $1.67 million.
Palmer may not have come out victorious this week, but it was a complete 180 from his missed cut at last week’s Workday Charity Open.
“I’m proud of the way I played this week and after what I went through last week,” Palmer said. “I’m going to enjoy this for a week.”
By virtue of finishing as the top player not already in the U.S. Open field, Palmer is now automatically qualified for Winged Foot. He is joined by Mackenzie Hughes as the qualifier from the Memorial. Hughes tied with Henrik Norlander, but got the automatic bid because he is higher in the world rankings.
Tiger Woods finished in a tie for 40th at 6-over in his first PGA TOUR event since the Genesis Invitational in February.
“I completed and played again. It’s been a while. It was nice to get my feet wet and compete and play again,” Woods said. “Tough, tough conditions to start out my first week back, Thursday and Sunday. But it was good to get the feel and the flow of competing again.”
The next time Woods will likely tee it up is in three weeks at the PGA Championship at Harding Park, but there is a chance he could play at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis in two weeks.
Next up on the PGA TOUR is the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities. Notables in the field include Brooks Kopeka, Dustin Johnson and defending champion Matthew Wolff.
