The number one in the world arrives with doubts after his performance last week
Everything is taken care of in the most important week of the year on the PGA Tour. The American Circuit receives 44 of the best 50 players in the world in its flagship tournament, The Players Championship, in the most special course, the Sawgrass TPC. With these ingredients, nothing can go wrong in the tournament that distributes the most money in the American circuit season, a purse that reaches 25 million dollars; 4.5 for the player who wins. The Players is not only the event of the PGA Tour, it is the event of the players.
It is the most intimidating par 3, 17th hole in the world, an island green that serves as a pilgrimage for the more than 50,000 players who travel to Florida every year to indulge themselves and pay almost $500 to play this course. An inspiration from a hole that has led the ex-footballer of Real Madrid Gareth Bale to build a replica in the garden of his house or to the La Marquesa Golf Club to build, a few years ago, the most exact copy, a little piece of the Sawgrass TPC in Rojales, (Alicante).
Until there they arrived sponsored by the same Miguel Angel Jimenez the topographic maps of the green, so that the tracing was millimeter. And it is that one of the 13 holes in one that illustrate the career of ‘El Pisha’ was here, on the very 17th of Sawgrass, the same mythical hole where Sergio Garcia resolved his victory hand in hand with Paul Goydos in 2008. In addition, in 2017 Rafa Cabrera-Bello achieved the first albatross (two strokes on a par five) in the history of the par five hole 16. None of those protagonists of the Spanish epic will be there this year. he touches Jon Rahm write your own story.
Rahm’s doubts
Jon Rahm, undisputed number 1, faces his sixth participation in the event, trying to follow, once again, the trail of his idol Tiger Woods, the only player who arrived as the leader of the world ranking, was crowned with the victory of the tournament. It was in the year 2013.
Rahm arrives with mixed feelings this week, a huge baggage of three wins in the first two months of the year, and a discreet role last week at Bay Hill despite starting the tournament as the leader. “When things go well for a while, the golf gods decide to put you down a bit,” explained the Spaniard. Despite his extraordinary winning streak, his tee shots have been penalizing him at the start of the season. The punishment at Bay Hill was so severe that five of his balls ended up in water hazards. “If it had been in another course, the balls would have been in play and the result would have been different,” he commented.
The Spaniard is looking for consolation, TPC Sawgrass is not as complicated as last week’s field, but either he straightens his blows, or it will not be easy to fight his rivals, especially the two that will accompany the Barrika player in the first days; the number two and three in the world, Rory McIIroy y Scotty Scheffler. The three tenors of world golf go out to play on Thursday at 7:56 local time in Florida, a little before two in the afternoon on the peninsula.
In the six years of participation in The Players, the Spanish missed the tournament twice. In 2019 he came out as the leader on Sunday, but his final 76 shots ended his victory aspirations. In 2021 another return on par left him without a comeback. The last taste in his mouth in 2022 was also bitter with the 77 strokes of the final day, one of his worst laps. The drums of revenge are beating, even though Rahm has only played 9 holes in this year’s edition.
The strong wind the day before encouraged Rahm not to go out onto the field on Wednesday. He was therefore left with the second nine holes on Tuesday, where his arrival at 17 coincided with the appearance of Trevor Lawrence, quarterback for the Jacksonville Jaguars, who unleashed the passions of the local public. The scene was curious: while hundreds of fans were chasing Lawrance, the athlete just wanted to take a picture at 17 with the golf number one. Rahm ended the practice day as usual, with more than 40 minutes of autographs and photos of all those who came to cheer on the Spanish player.
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