Rahm fires 62, steals show
SAN DIEGO — All the attention was on Tiger Woods and his 2019 debut.
Jon Rahm delivered the best performance — again.
In ideal conditions even by San Diego standards, Rahm opened with an eagle and kept going lower until he had a 10-under-par 62 on the North Course at Torrey Pines Golf Course, giving him a one-shot lead over Doug Ghim and Justin Rose after Thursday’s opening round at the Farmers Insurance Open.
“You play the South on the first day, you’re trying to survive,” Rahm said. “On the North, you’ve got to start under par to keep up. I kept the pedal down.”
Woods was on the tougher South Course, where he won his 14th and most recent major, the 2008 U.S. Open. He made three birdies on the back nine for a 70 in his first competition in nearly two months and was tied for 53rd.
“I probably could have shot something around 68 or 67 today pretty easily,” said Woods, who turned 43 last month. “I hit a lot of good putts that were around the hole that just didn’t quite fall in. Overall, shooting a couple under par on the South Course is not so bad, but now I’m forced to have to shoot a low one tomorrow just like most of the field did over there today.”
Rahm’s biggest highlight in 2018 was helping Europe win the Ryder Cup in France by beating Woods in Sunday singles. In early December, the 24-year-old Spaniard ended his golfing year by closing with a 65 to win the Hero World Challenge, Woods’ exclusive tournament in the Bahamas.
They were on opposite ends of Torrey Pines, and Rahm made the most of being on the North side, which is 440 yards shorter and played just more than two shots easier on average Thursday. He made two eagles on the back nine to go out in 29, and his only regret was missing a seven-foot putt for birdie on his final hole. That would have tied the North record set 12 years ago by Brandt Snedeker, who was in
his playing group.
“I don’t think you ever tee up on any course at Torrey Pines expecting to shoot 10 under par,” said Rahm, who won the Farmers Insurance Open two years ago for his first PGA Tour title.
Rose played in the group behind him, also opened with an eagle and did his best to keep up, avoiding bogeys and finished with a birdie, his seventh of the day. Rose, who had an eagle on the par-5 10th, played with Billy Horschel (66) and Jordan Spieth (65) as their group combined for 21 birdies and two eagles, a better-ball score of 59.
“They told us our combined group was the lowest,” Spieth said. “I’m glad, because if there were lower than that, it means everybody went low.”
Ghim’s North 63 included an eagle on the par-5 17th and nine birdies. C.T. Pan was fourth after a North 64, with Spieth fifth.
Charles Howell III and Brandon Nagy had the lowest scores on the South at 66, and Nagy did that with three bogeys on his card. They were among those tied for sixth.
“You don’t see many days when you don’t have any wind,” Howell said. “The scores were a lot lower than I thought they would be.”
Ninety-seven players in the 156-man field broke par. Even more unusual was that no one shot worse than 77.
For the first time since the RSM Classic in November, all four Baylor School graduates on the PGA Tour are in the same field. Harris English was tied for 41st after opening with a 69 on the North, with Stephan Jaeger and Luke List another stroke back among those tied for 53rd after both played the South and Keith Mitchell (74 South) tied for 133rd.