Jon Rahm talked after the third round about how cool it would be to add the Tiger Trophy for winning the Hero World Challenge to his trophy case.
Then the 24-year-old Spaniard went out and took the prize.
The eighth-ranked Rahm closed with a bogey-free, 7-under-par 65 to break out of a three-way tie for the lead and claim his third victory of the year by four strokes over Tony Finau at Albany Resort https://albanybahamas.com in New Providence, Bahamas.
“Arguably the best ball-striking day I’m ever going to have–even better than Friday (when he shot 63),” said Rahm, who won the CareerBuilder Challenge and the Spanish Open earlier to give him three victories in both of his years as a professional.
“It’s about as perfect as it could have been today. I played so solid tee to green. I didn’t make any mistakes. If you can capitalize on the five par-5s and the two drivable par-4s, which I did on all of them today, you’re going to have a good chance.
“ … Jordan Spieth won this event (in 2014) and went on to win two majors the next year, so I hope it does the same thing for me as well.”
Rahm, who began the final round tied with Finau and Henrik Stenson of Sweden, took charge with four birdies on the front nine and three more coming home to finish with a score of 20-under 268.
Finau birdied two of the last four holes to shoot 69 and finish second, while second-ranked Justin Rose of England was another stroke back in third after a 65 when he could have regained the No. 1 ranking with a tie for second, and Stenson was six back in fourth after a 71.
Ninth-ranked and defending champion Rickie Fowler of Murrieta totaled 69 to wind up seven down in a tie for fifth with Patrick Cantlay of Los Alamitos and UCLA, who finished at 64 with an eagle on the 15th hole, while third-ranked Dustin Johnson was one more shot back in seventh after a 69.
Xander Schauffele of La Jolla and San Diego State shot 70 and was nine shots down in a tie for eighth with Alex Noren of Sweden, who had a 69, and Gary Woodland, who came in at 72.
Tournament host Tiger Woods, who has won the tournament a record five times, totaled 73 and finished 17th in the 18-man field.
For complete results, visit https://www.pgatour.com/competition/2019/hero-world-challenge/leaderboard.html
