Well, Scottie Scheffler’s time as the first ranked golfer in the world in 2023 was short lived. That is because on Sunday, Jon Rahm of Barrika, Spain moved back to the world number one spot with a win at the 2023 Genesis Open, an event we believed Rahm would have success at.
Rahm posted a four-round score of -17 to beat American Max Homa by two strokes and American Patrick Cantlay by three strokes. Homa of Burbank, California, finished the tournament at -15 and Cantlay of Long Beach, California finished the Genesis Open at -14.
Rahm had a first round score of -6, a second round score of -3, a third round score of -6 and a fourth round score of -2. Despite only posting a second round score of -3, Rahm had eagles on the first and 17th holes.
In the final round, Rahm was not spectacular, but came up big when he need to be. He faced a temporary challenge from Homa, but regained momentum and was the better golfer down the stretch.
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Rahm currently has an average of 9.5152 points. Scheffler is second with 9.005 points and McIlroy is third with 8.4038 points. McIlroy had the world number one ranking for most of 2023, before Scheffler won the Phoenix Open on Super Bowl Sunday.
There is no doubt Rahm deserves to be first in the world because this was his third win already in the 2023 calendar year. He previously won the Sentry Tournament of Champions to begin the year on the Hawaiian island of Maui, and then The American Express title where he posted a four round score of -27.
