Instant success, conflicts for Rahm
Winning early makes scheduling tougher for rookie.
One year and one week ago, Jon Rahm of Spain made his professional debut at the Quicken Loans National. He opened with a 64 at Congressional and tied for third, earning a spot in the British Open and putting him on the fast track to earning a PGA Tour card.
The Quicken Loans National is this week, and Rahm is in Paris for the French Open.
It raises the question of whether young players who receive sponsor exemptions fresh out of college owe it to the tournaments to return the favor by playing after they have established themselves. Rahm already is No. 11 in the world.
He also has special circumstances, achieving so much so quickly that he has scheduling issues he might have not have expected. The 22-year-old Spaniard wants to play on the European Tour and play in the Ryder Cup, which next year is at Le Golf National, home of the French Open.
“I didn’t have the luxury to have long-term goals at that point,” Rahm said Tuesday as he looked back on his anniversary of turning pro. “So I really had my mindset in the next six events I was able to play. I knew I had to play my best golf possible. They were really good events and I had to get a minimum amount of money to be able to get my tour card. I didn’t know my first event I was going to play that good.”
In his fourth event, he was runner-up by one shot at the RBC Canadian Open to lock up his card. Rahm also took exemptions to the Travelers Championship, John Deere Classic and Wyndham Championship, needing a victory to be eligible for the FedEx Cup playoffs.
The schedule was different last year because of the Olympics, and Rahm can’t be expected to play them all this year. The John Deere is the week before the British Open (Rahm will be in Europe). The Canadian Open is the week between the Open and the World Golf Championship at Firestone, with the PGA Championship right behind it. The Wyndham Championship is a week after the PGA and a week before the FedEx Cup playoffs begin.
“Once I hit January and I win at Torrey Pines, everything changed again,” he said. “I got into all the WGCs and majors, so I had to reschedule everything around those tournaments. And luckily for me, winning that opened up the possibility of being able to join the European Tour and play here in Europe.”
Jordan Spieth was in a similar predicament, although most of his exemptions were earlier in the year.
Without a card on any tour in 2013, Spieth earned special temporary membership in his second PGA Tour event (Valspar Championship) and wrapped up a card three starts later. He became a full member when he won the John Deere Classic in July.
He took 13 sponsor exemptions in 2013. Spieth returned to nine of those tournaments, including Hilton Head, a week after he was runner-up at the Masters.
Second chances: Charley Hoffman’s first good chance to become exempt for the British Open was at Colonial. He started the week at No. 53 and needed to crack the top 50 to secure a spot at Royal Birkdale. He wound up missing by three shots when he closed with a 72.
He made good on his next chance thanks to the last two tournaments.
Hoffman played bogeyfree on his final nine at Erin Hills to finish eighth at the U.S. Open, and then he closed with a 64 at the Travelers Championship to tie for third. That was just enough to move up to No. 20 in the FedEx Cup.
Also making it through the FedEx Cup category were Brian Harman and Brendan Steele.
Florida got a dominant performance from Brady Singer, a big defensive play when LSU was threatening and just enough offense.
Now, after a 4-3 win in Game 1 of the College World Series on Monday night, the Gators are one win from their first national championship in baseball.
But with LSU all-time wins leader Jared Poche’ starting on Tuesday and first-round draft pick Alex Lange available if there’s a Game 3, the Tigers believe this best-of-three series matching Southeastern Conference rivals is just getting started.
“We’ve got to play better if we want to win this thing,” Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “It’s not near over. We got six hits tonight, and Brady had to pitch his tail off.
“It’s exciting to have Game 1 under our belt ... but we haven’t crossed the line yet.”
LSU’s Greg Deichmann said he and his teammates haven’t had their confidence dented. Poche’ (12-3) will pitch against Tyler Dyson (3-0) on Tuesday night.
“We’re not hanging our heads about anything,” he said. “We had a lot of great stuff we did tonight. We had a couple of tough breaks that didn’t go our way.
“We’re going to come out tomorrow with a lot of positivity, energy and get after it.”
Singer struck out a careerhigh 12 in seven innings before turning the game over to closer Michael Byrne, who picked up his nation-leading 19th save for the Gators (51-19).
The Gators improved to 19-7 in one-run games.
Singer relied on his fastball the first time through LSU’s batting order and cleverly mixed in sliders the rest of the way.
“I felt like I was landing it a lot more for strikes than I usually do,” he said. “The slider did feel good.”
His strikeout total was the highest by a single pitcher in a CWS finals game. Singer (9-5) limited LSU (52-19) to three singles before Antoine Duplantis homered in the sixth.
Singer, who pitched a complete game in an 8-1 win over LSU in March, turned in his second strong performance at the CWS.
The sophomore struck out nine and allowed one run in seven innings against Louisville last Tuesday. Monday marked the eighth straight game that Florida pitchers struck out 11 or more.
“My feelings are that we went up against who I believe to be maybe the best pitcher I’ve seen in the SEC for an opponent since I’ve been the coach at LSU,” Tigers coach Paul Mainieri said.
Singer left with a 4-2 lead after Deichmann doubled leading off the eighth. With fans clad in purple and gold chanting “L-S-U, L-S-U,” Josh Smith sent Byrne’s pitch into the right-center gap to drive in Deichmann. But Smith was thrown out trying for second by Nick Horvath.