Spain’s Rahm in three-way tie for PGA Tour lead at Kapalua

LOS ANGELES: World number five Jon Rahm finished strong on Thursday to join two-time major winner Collin Morikawa and JJ Spaun atop the leaderboard at the US PGA Tour Tournament of Champions in Hawaii.

Morikawa and Spaun were both in the clubhouse at Kapalua on nine-under par 64 when Rahm birdied three of his last four holes to join them.

Morikawa had raced up the leaderboard with six straight birdies from the 10th through the 15th.

He finished with nine birdies in all, as did Spaun, who strung together four in a row at the 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th. Rahm followed a birdie bomb at the fourth hole with a 19-foot eagle put at the fith.

He was two shots off the lead ater birdies at the sixth, eighth, 10th and 12th when he bogeyed the 14th -- where he was unable to get up and down from a greenside bunker.

He responded with a four-foot birdie put at the 15th, a seven-foot birdie at 16 and a two-put birdie at the 18th for his share of the lead.

“I made a lot of good swings out there,” Rahm said, but added he thought his best shot of the day was a 20-foot birdie put at the 10th.

“Ater somehow leaving a six-footer short and not hiting my best shots on nine, to come back and make that 20-footer was a big thing,” he said.

Rahm came up a shot behind last year’s tournament winner Cameron Smith, who finished with the lowest 72-hole tournament score in US PGA Tour history with a 34-under total.

Despite his own scorching week last year, Rahm said he couldn’t say the Plantation Course owed him one.

“I shot 33-under. I got beat by 34-under,” he said. “That’s just what it is. It was a great batle. If we get to that point again, hopefully it’s me and hopefully I end up winning by one.”

Morikawa,winnerofthe2020pgachampionship and the 2021 Open Championship, has slipped to 11th in the world ater a largely unrewarding 2022.

However, he said recent work on various parts of his game with specialist coaches was paying dividends, particularly with his puting.

“Speed control was a big one,” he said of his improvements on the greens. “I think today I did a prety good part on that, just kind of dripping them in -- having really good speed. I think I had one or two puts that were just a litle off.”

He got his round going with a 25-foot birdie put at the fourth.