Another tournament, another opportunity. One more day in the office for the 2023 version of Jon Rahm. A competitive beast that runs rampant. At TPC Scottsdale, just a short drive from his home in Phoenix, USA, and from Arizona State, where he began to make a name for himself in golf and where he met the mother of his children, Rahmbo is moving toward what could be his third victory of the year. He won at Kapalua, he won at La Quinta and was seventh at Torrey Pines in his three starts to date. And in the fourth the rhythm is champion again. This Friday he had to play 23 holes, the 18 of the second round and five that had been left pending on Thursday due to lack of light. He completed them at -5 for -8.
He had closed with eagle the day before, but the break felt bad for him. He started with a bogey at 14 that he fixed at 17 and with a -3 to open his mouth he had to immediately return to the 10 tee. Once again it was not the ideal start: bogey to 11 after sending the ball into the lake that protects the hole on the left. The reaction would come with a birdie on the par 5 of 13. From there, unchained. Monster eagle at 15 from the bunker, birdie at 16, the hilarious hole-stadium, at 2, at 3…
He would slow down in a final section in which he flirted with the bogey. Especially in the ninth, his last segment of the day. His second impact landed in the sand and, before executing the third, he had to remove himself from the ball due to an untimely comment from an amateur (this is Phoenix) to whom he glared. Concentration recovered, the putt was left for par given with a majestic recovery. At the close of this edition, it was second only to Scottie Scheffler, the current champion (-7 to -10), and in the absence of what happened in the second turn, in which Rory McIlroy played, among others, to whom another aspires this week time to unseat number one in the world ranking.
“I’ve had a couple of lucky breaks. Overall it’s been a great round. When you hit the greens here it’s a lot of fun and I think I’ve done a good job,” Jon analyzed after what is his 18th consecutive under-par round at Scottsdale, something no one else can boast of right now.. Another sample of the plethoric moment that it is going through. He has never finished outside the top-10 in this tournament, which, like so many others, he considers one of the special stops on the circuit’s calendar, an appointment “very different from what you normally see”, which has “nothing to envy” to any other. And that in 48 hours it could appear in his increasingly extensive list of honors.
