Planet Golf — 31 January 2017 by GW staff and news services
Rahm could be PGA’s next big star

CBS SPORTSLINE

SAN DIEGO — Jon Rahm. Get to know the name. Roll it around on your tongue a little bit. See how it sounds out loud. You’ll be hearing it for the foreseeable future.

You might not know it yet, but Rahm is a star in the making (if he’s not already there). He made an eagle on the final hole at the Farmers Insurance Open on Sunday to touch off a back-nine 30 and grab his first PGA Tour victory. At 13 under, Rahm beat Charles Howell III and C.T. Pan by three each.

The 22-year-old Spaniard is the youngest golfer to ever win this event.

The eagle on No. 18 was his second on the back nine (he also eagled No. 13) and gave him a closing round of 65. Not since 1999 has a winner at this tournament made eagle at the last hole. That man’s name? Tiger Woods. Rahm’s eagle was as improbable as it was incredible, and there is no way a putt from where Rahm was standing should have gone in. But it did.

“The difference is the inexperience,” Rahm said of coming up close in multiple events last year and winning this one. “I was doing everything that I needed [last year], but the putts were not falling. Today was completely different. After that second shot on No. 13, I was able to execute so good and think clearly all the time. The putt was a little bit of lagging it up there and just hoping it kept the line.”

There is no way to make a putt like that which dances back and forth so many times. You just have to hit the right speed and pray you have an easy birdie putt to get to 12 under. The next putt never came.

“I can’t explain what went through my mind,” Rahm added. “I saw the replay, and I don’t even remember what I did. I’m so blessed to have a chance to win.”

Rahm turned pro last summer after a sterling amateur career at Arizona State where he became the No. 1-ranked amateur in the world under the tutelage of Phil Mickeslon’s brother Tim. Phil said on Sunday that Rahm is not a future star because, well, he’s already one.

The Spaniard nearly won the Quicken Loans National and Canadian Open shortly after trading his backpack for a tour bag last year. He finished T5 at the 2015 Phoenix Open as a then-amateur still in school at Arizona State. He wore an ASU jersey to play the wild 16th hole. He has a sense of the moment. That was evident on Sunday as he played his 72nd hole of the week.

Rahm was one clear of the field before murdering his drive on the par-5 18th knowing he would need a birdie or better to post a score and feel good about his chances. He followed that with an adrenaline-infused second shot from 240 yards just over the back of the green before holing what could be the putt of the year (and will definitely be the putt of his year).

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