Jon Rahm’s story in THE PLAYERS Championship has two sides to it, very different at that. One up until Saturday, and the other on the third day of the tournament.
Rahm began the fifth major on the world calendar, star tournament of the PGA Tour held on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, with a fantastic round of 68 shots. Incredible start on one of the toughest courses of the year in the PGA Tour.
Jon moved to the top of the rankings right off the bat, and was able to maintain his position after the round on Friday. He shot par on a difficult day, with extremely firm greens and intermittent gusts of wind, distracting and difficult to read. The golfer from Barrika made it through the first ironclad barrier at Sawgrass. Once again, Rahm found himself going into the weekend in yet another tournament knee-deep in the fight for the win.
However, the tides turned radically on Saturday. Tough day, really took its toll on the Basque golfer. It was an uphill battle from the start and Sawgrass turned against him. Nothing was working out and the errors unfolded one after another. There was no stopping the downward spiral and he shot an 82 in the round, which knocked him out of the tournament. Jon didn’t make the second cut, established by the PGA Tour on Saturday when more than 78 golfers make the first cut on Friday. He made money and accumulated FedEX points, but didn’t manage to make it through to Sunday. It was his highest-scoring round since he became a professional. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had a round like that”, he assured still slightly shaken by the turn of events in the tournament.
Jon will have a week-long break now and will be back at it the following week in the Dean & DeLuca Invitational, PGA Tour tournament held in Texas.