Jon Rahm produced a stunning final round 63 to overturn a seven-shot deficit and win the PGA Tour’s Tournament of Champions in Hawaii by two shots.

“I needed to play good and he needed to make a couple mistakes,” said Rahm. “If you told me at the beginning of the round, after that opening bogey, I was going to do what I did I don’t know if I would have believed you.”

It was a third win in six starts for Rahm – after winning in Spain and Dubai late in 2022 – and an eighth PGA Tour title. 

Rahm’s round started badly. The 28-year-old missed a seven-foot par putt on the first to fall eight shots behind Morikawa but had five birdies in his next eight holes to improve to 21 under par after nine.  However, Morikawa also had a solid front nine, with three birdies taking his score to 27 under at the turn.

Rahm then had three successive birdies from the 12th before carding an eagle three at the par-five 15th to move within one of the lead. Moments later he was joint leader, benefiting from Morikawa thinning a bunker shot across the 14th green and dropping his first shot of the tournament.

“At that point I got in the thick of things and never did I think that going into my third shot on 17 I was going to have a one-shot lead,” said Rahm, who missed the green with his second shot on his penultimate hole. “That’s when I had to change a bit of the mindset of chasing and needing birdies to, ‘let’s get this up-and-down, hopefully birdie 18 and give ourselves the best chance’.”

Rahm led because Morikawa dropped another shot on the 15th. He duffed a simple chip and then missed a seven-foot putt for par. And his short game let him down again on the par-four 16th after a superb drive left him with a 55-yard pitch for his second. He misjudged the spin on his ball and it ended up 70 feet from the hole and he could only three-putt from there.

Rahm suddenly led by two and picked up another birdie on the 648-yard par-five last hole after finding the green in two shots and two-putting from 65 feet. Morikawa also completed the final hole in four shots but his birdie proved scant consolation with Rahm completing the biggest comeback victory in the tournament’s history.

“You work so hard and you give yourself these opportunities,” said the 2021 Open winner, who matched the PGA Tour record held by seven other players of squandering a six-shot lead in the final round.  “I just made three poor swings, really, at the wrong times. It’s never a good time to put a poor swing on it, but sometimes it works out and these never worked out. I don’t know what I’m going to learn from this week, but it just didn’t seem like it was that far off. It really wasn’t. Yeah, it sucks.”

Fellow Americans Tom Hoge (64) and Max Homa (66) were joint third on 23 under. Matt Fitzpatrick ended alongside Masters winner Scottie Scheffler – who could have returned to world number one with a higher finish this week – on 21 under after both carded closing 70s.

As well as being superb result for Rahm, the Spaniard’s victory also provided a huge endorsement for his equipment sponsor Callaway, which only last week officially launched the new Paradym range of woods and irons, several of which were in Rahm’s bag.  Rahm put the Paradym Triple Diamond driver straight into the bag for this week, and averaged 317.3 yards off the tee –around ten yards more than the field average – whilst his driving accuracy (73.33%) was significantly better than the field (51.67%).  Rahm also had two Paradym Triple Diamond fairway woods in play.

JON RAHM’S WINNING GEAR

Driver: Callaway Paradym Triple Diamond (10.5°)
Fairway woods: Callaway Paradym Triple Diamond (16°)
Irons: Callaway Apex TCB (4-PW)
Wedges: Callaway JAWS Raw (52°, 56°, 60°)
Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG Rossie S
Ball: Callaway Chrome Soft X 

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The Scandinavian pairing of Viktor Hovland and Søren Kjeldsen share a one-stroke lead at the BMW PGA Championship, with Wentworth set for a thrilling third and final round in front of packed galleries.

The tournament has been reduced to 54 holes after play was suspended on Thursday evening following the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, with the second round resuming on Saturday morning. A two-minute silence was observed at Wentworth Club at 9.50am.

Denmark’s Kjeldsen set the early clubhouse target of 12 under par as he took advantage of the conditions to card an eight under par 64, with Hovland, of Norway, joining him on that number with a four under par 68.

Rory McIlroy will lead the final round charge, sitting one stroke back after carding a seven-under-par 65. He is joined in a share of third by Rafa Cabrera Bello and Thomas Detry. One stroke further back on ten under par, in a share of sixth, are Shane Lowry, Francesco Molinari, Matthew Jordan, Adrian Otaegui and Talor Gooch. Gooch is the highest placed LIV golfer on the leaderboard, while Ian Poulter, who is also a member of LIV Golf, is sitting one shot further back in tied 11th.

Hovland said: “My irons have been really good this week. I think I’ve only missed a handful of greens over the two rounds, and that obviously alleviates a lot of pressure. I still I feel like I haven’t driven it the best. but I keep giving myself looks, but I haven’t made too many putts. I played here in 2019 shortly after I turned pro and I was kind of a little overawed by the experience, but I’ve got a chance to do something tomorrow. So it would be awesome to win.

McIlroy, whose second round was kickstarted by an eagle at the fifth and ended with birdies at 17 and 18, said: “I finished the season in the States off on a real high, and I want to do the same over here. I’ve got a great chance tomorrow to win this prestigious event, but also to extend the lead in the Race to Dubai rankings, and then we’ll go to Italy and try and do it all over again.

“I’ve always liked this tournament, even though I won the event when it was played in May, it was very soft, but once the dates changed to September, I liked it more. It’s a little like The Players Championship in the States, I like the date change from May. It’s a little softer and I can play the game that I want to play a little bit more.”

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