How can we forget 2023? Jon Rahm closed his sporting year this Sunday with a fifth place in the DP World Tour Championship, the final of the European circuit, in Dubai. And so, with another position of honor and opposing victory until the end, he completed an exercise that goes straight to the showcase: four individual trophies won, including the Augusta Masters, his second major after the 2021 US Open, in addition of the Ryder Cup in Rome in which he acted as the great leader of the European team. Cinema.
Rahm was a whirlwind at the beginning of the year: victory on January 8 at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, on the 22nd at the American Express and on February 19 at the Genesis Invitational. And on April 9, the day Seve Ballesteros would have turned 66, the green jacket of the Masters. He was 10th at the US Open and second at the British Open in two other majors. Only in 2021 did he collect more places in the top 10 in the four steps of the Grand Slam, when he was fifth in the Masters, eighth in the PGA, winner in the US Open and third in the British Open. It was precisely that course that Rahm highlights as the pinnacle of his golf. “In terms of results, 2023 has been my best year, but in terms of game, I think 2021 was better. This season I have been very close,” says the world number three.
With the Dubai event, Rahm has played 22 tournaments in 2023, in which he has added four victories, 12 places in the top 10 and only one missed cut, in the Travelers, in addition to a withdrawal due to illness in The Players. In the summary of earnings, his highest in one year, 17 million dollars, a boost derived from the large increase in prizes on the PGA Tour due to competition with the Saudi League.
Rahm finished the course with -17, four strokes behind the winner of the tournament, the Danish Nicolai Hojgaard. Rory McIlroy was crowned the best of the year on the European circuit for the fifth time (2012, 14, 15, 22 and 23, one title behind Seve and three behind Colin Montgomerie). Adrian Otaegui was 18th with -11; Pablo Larrazábal, 34th with -6; Jorge Campillo finished 43rd with -2, and the result earned him the American circuit card next season, a major success; and Nacho Elvira was last, 50th, with +6. The tournament left a record of nine for history birdies followed by the Englishman Matt Wallace between holes 10 and 18 on the third day.
Next year is already on Jon Rahm’s horizon. And the following challenges. One with capital letters is to add another great one to the 2021 US Open and the last Masters, and Barrika always points out the British Open as the stage in which he wants to be crowned, due to the historical background of the tournament and to inherit the legacy once again. by Seve, triple winner of the British. And another focus is the Paris Olympic Games after missing the Tokyo event at the last minute when testing positive for covid hours before getting on the plane.
At 29 years old, in full maturity, the Basque remains focused on increasing his relevance in the golf encyclopedia and hunting large prey. Hence he clears the distractions of other matters from his path. He recently announced that he will not participate in the Tiger Woods League, a spectacle that mixes real and virtual golf and will take place for 15 Mondays throughout the season, despite having initially committed to the Tiger. And he has also ruled out replacing Rory McIlroy as a member of the PGA Tour governing board, following the Northern Irishman’s resignation, due to the amount of time in meetings and calls that he would have to invest. Golf and only golf.
The new return of Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods will turn 48 on December 30. The champion of 15 majors will organize next year a League that mixes real and virtual golf, and that may serve as training for a goal that he has never abandoned, that of remaining in the elite despite the martyrdom of physical problems he suffers. After having surgery on his right ankle after the last Masters, and without competing since then, Woods has announced that he will participate from November 30 to December 3 in the Hero World Challenge, the tournament he organizes in the Bahamas. It will be a new opportunity to measure his recovery.
Final classification of the DP World Tour Championship.
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