Jon Rahm can’t with an intractable Tony Finau at the Mexico Open

Jon Rahm, world number 1 and leader of the FedEx Cup of the PGA Tour, he already saw on hole 1 of the fourth day in the Vidanta Resort, in Puerto Vallartathan the American Tony Finau He was not going to make it easy for him to successfully defend the title of the Mexico Open at Vidanta, like 17 holes later that was the case. It is Finau’s sixth victory on the American circuit and fourth since he was runner-up in this tournament in 2022. He then went on to win the 3M Opem, Mortgage Classic and Houston Open. Finau won with a final 66 for 260 (-24) while Rahm added 67 for 263 (-21).

Birdie already on the initial hole, making a putt that narrowly escaped Jon, and a three-stroke lead that the American always maintained, very solid, firm, taking advantage of his options and saving well the compromised situations. He even had four, Barrika’s being unable to partly match the great third round on Saturday, especially with the putt. But Rahm fought it, he tried, and everything that came to him on Saturday, this Sunday, far from it.

Finau only showed any signs of weakness on the 16th hole after Jon put some pressure on him with the fourth birdie of the day for him and move within 3 shots on the board and 3 holes to play. Exit bunker, second shot bunker, but from the sand he left the ball two meters from the hole and saved par again. In the 17th minute Rahm even signed the first bogey of the day. Finau did not forgive, he did not give in, and in the end that golf of radar / control / resolution had his reward.

With this second place achieved in the tour designed by Greg Norman, however, Rahm will keep the world number 1 for two more weeks, even if he does not play the next one in Charlotte, headquarters of Wells Fargo, where not even Jon will. Scottie Scheffler, world No., are enrolled in one of the ‘designated’ tournaments and with $20 million in prizes. Of course, he continues to be the leader of FedEx and adds a new top ten to his long list (more than 70) on the PGA Tour.

The Mexico Open is the seventh tournament where Rahm has failed to successfully defend the previous year’s PGA Tour victory. He was unable to repeat the Basque success at the 2018 Farmers, 2019 Amex, Zurich Classic in pairs, the 2021 Memorial and BMW Championship, and the 2022 US Open.

final classification

-24 Tony Finau (USA)

-21 Jon Rahm (Esp)

-19 Brandan Wu (USA)

-18 Akshay Bathia (USA)