The golf wheel does not stop turning. The fight between the American circuit and the Saudi League does not stop: the latest movement of the PGA Tour has been to announce eight high tournaments for 2024, without cut and reserved for between 70 and 78 players, with a juicy prize pool that answers the checkbook by LIV Golf. By the way, fill the pockets of other appointments, and there arises the option of a test of the American circuit in Spain. Meanwhile, in the field, round and round. The number one in golf changes ownership again. Jon Rahm has ceded the throne to the American Scottie Scheffler after the celebration of The Players, the fifth big one.
Rahm withdrew from the tournament before the second round, due to gastroenteritis, after a first round of -1. Rory McIlroy, contender for the top spot, missed the cut. And the reign was served on a platter for Scheffler, who was worth a fifth place tied with three players. There was no debate. Scheffler won by -17, five ahead of Tyrrell Hatton. Incidentally, he became the third player in history to hold the Augusta Masters and The Players crowns at the same time. The other two, the two great legends, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
Stopping for Rahm after finishing 39th last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Despite everything, the Basque has collected five victories in his last 10 tournaments in a fabulous streak since the end of last year. Rahm will rest until he participates from March 22 to 26 in the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play, in Texas. On the horizon, the first big of the season. From April 6 to 9, Augusta opens the doors of the Masters.
Out of the Rahm contest, the Spanish bingo was sung by Jorge Campillo, who won the Kenyan Open, on the European circuit. The 36-year-old golfer from Extremadura prevailed with -18, two strokes ahead of the Japanese Masahiro Kawamura, with two other Spaniards in the wake: Santiago Tarrío finished three shots behind and Borja Virto four.
It is Campillo’s third title, after the Hassan II Trophy in 2019 and the Qatar Masters in 2020, and the fourth Spanish victory this year, after Rahm’s three on the PGA Tour (Sentry, American Express and Genesis). The record for tournaments won for Spain in a calendar year is nine, in 1988 and 2017.
“Where I am from, the small town, I am very proud. Putting my name on the same trophy as Seve (Ballesteros won in Kenya in 1978) is obviously more special for a Spaniard”, Campillo celebrated.
Final classification of The Players.
Final classification of the Kenyan Open.
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