All eyes on Tiger Woods

LA JOLLA. — All eyes are on Tiger Woods this week as the former world number one golfer returns to the US PGA Tour at the Farmers Insurance Open, and that’s just the way defending champion Jon Rahm likes it.

“The more attention on Tiger, the better for me, quite frankly,” Rahm said on Tuesday. “We all know the power of media and social media. You can put all the attention on what Tiger’s doing and forget about what I’m doing, it will be actually great.” Expectations surrounding Rahm have ratcheted up thanks to his playoff triumph on Sunday at the CareerBuilder Challenge in La Quinta, California.

The 23-year-old Spaniard jumped from third to second in the world rankings, supplanting US star Jordan Spieth.

A winner of two European Tour events in 2017 as well, Rahm is even within striking distance of Dustin Johnson’s world number one ranking.

“Hopefully I keep playing good and give you guys something to talk about,” Rahm said. “But it’s not bad that the attention’s on Tiger. It’s good for golf, it’s good for all of us.”

Woods was on the Torrey Pines South Course on Tuesday, playing nine holes with Australian Jason Day and Bryson DeChambeau. “I’m hitting a lot of golf balls and building up my endurance,” the 42-year-old superstar told ESPN. “You have to do it. You have to beat balls for a little bit of time to build up your endurance and muscles. — AFP.