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John Rahm holds his trophy after winning the Genesis Invitational in Pacific Palisades. | Photo courtesy of John Rahm Rodriguez/Twitter
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Pre-tournament favorite and third-round leader Jon Rahm won the $20 million Genesis Invitational by two strokes over Southern Californian Max Homa Sunday despite briefly losing his lead on the back nine.
The Spaniard entered play on Sunday at The Riviera Country Club with a three-stroke lead over the 2009 graduate of Valencia High School, which dropped to one stroke after three holes when Homa birdied the par-4 third hole and Rahm bogeyed it.
Both golfers birdied the par-5 first hole.
Rahm regained a three-stroke lead when he birdied the par-4 eighth hole and Homa bogeyed it. Homa moved into a tie for the lead with back-to-back birdies on the ninth and 10th holes, both par-4s, while Rahm bogeyed the 10th hole.
Homa took the lead when Rahm bogeyed the par-4 12th hole, missing a five-foot-five-inch putt for par. Homa dropped back into a tie when he bogeyed the par-4 13th hole.
Rahm took a lead he would never relinquish when he sank a 45-foot-10-inch putt from off the green for a birdie on the par-4 14th hole. Rahm added a stroke to his lead on the 16th hole when his 159-yard drive with an 8-iron set up a 2-foot-9-inch putt for a birdie in what Rahm called “probably the best swing of the week.”
Rahm closed out the tournament with consecutive pars on the 17th and 18th holes for a two-under 69 and a 72-hole score of 17-under 267.
The victory put Rahm back atop the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time since March 26. American Scottie Scheffler drops one spot to second after moving into first after he won the WM Phoenix Open which concluded last Sunday.
Scheffler tied for 12th at The Genesis Invitational, nine strokes off the lead.
Rahm became the first player on the PGA Tour in the 2022-23 season with three victories. Homa is the other player with multiple victories, with two. The Genesis Invitational is the 16th event of the season.
Rahm is the first player to reach three PGA Tour wins in calendar year before March 1 since Johnny Miller in 1975. The victory was Rahm’s third in his last six starts on the PGA Tour. This is the first time he has won three tournaments in one season.
“Obviously I’ve been extremely disciplined my whole career, but right now I’m seeing the dividends of a lot of the hard work over the years,” the 28-year-old Rahm said.
Rahm earned $3.6 million for his tenth PGA Tour victory in 137 starts.
Homa earned $2.18 million for his fourth consecutive top-10 finish at The Genesis Invitational. He tied for fifth in 2020, won in 2021 and tied for 10th in 2022.
“I’m very proud,” said Homa, who is second behind Rahm in the FedEx Cup standings, the season-long points competition that culminates with the FedExCup Playoffs, a series of three events to determine the FedExCup champion.
“I did not have it off the tee today, but man, I fought. I really just wanted to push him. He is a spectacular golfer. I would say other than Tiger and I don’t even know, he’s the most consistent player I’ve seen. I wanted to make him beat me and I think I did that.
“I’m not disappointed in my golf, I’m just disappointed in the ending.”
Another Southern California golfer was third: former UCLA and Servite High standout Patrick Cantlay, who shot a 4-under 67 on Sunday to complete the tournament at 14-under 270, three strokes off the lead. Cantlay earned $1.38 million.
Tiger Woods shot a 2-over 73 to finish in a five-way tie for 45th at 1-under 283, 16 strokes off the lead in his fourth official PGA Tour event since he suffered multiple fractures to his right leg and ankle when the SUV he was driving rolled over on a downhill slope of northbound Hawthorne Boulevard in Rancho Palos Verdes on Feb. 23, 2021.
This is the second event of the four he completed. He was 47th in The Masters last April, forced to withdraw from the PGA Championship in May after three rounds and missed the cut at the Open Championship in July.
“It’s progress, headed in the right direction,” said Woods, who entered play Sunday in a seven-way tie for 26th, 12 strokes off the lead. “It certainly was a little bit more difficult than I probably let on. My team has been fantastic in getting my body recovered day to day and getting me ready to play each and every day.
“That’s the hard part that I can’t simulate at home. Even if I played four days at home, it’s not the same as adrenaline, it’s not the same as the system being ramped up like that, the intensity, just the focus that it takes to play at this level. I’m very good at simulating that at home, but it’s just not the same as being out here and doing it.”
