Jon Rahm’s winning streak ends at two

LA JOLLA, Calif. – Jon Rahm knows it’s not easy to win on the PGA TOUR. His recent results had indicated otherwise. Rahm arrived at this week’s Farmers Insurance Open having won four of his last five official starts, including wins in back-to-back TOUR starts this month, and he played his way into the final grouping for a Saturday finish at Torrey Pines, entering the final round two strokes back of 54-hole leader Sam Ryder. Rahm, though, made bogey on his first hole to fall three strokes off the pace and never drew closer. The world No. 3 carded a final-round, 2-over 74 at Torrey South to finish in a tie for seventh at 8 under, five strokes back of winner Max Homa. Rahm maintains his lead on the season-long FedExCup, with Homa moving to No. 2. Despite the undesirable outcome, Rahm was undeterred. He knew Saturday would pose demanding conditions on the always-tough Torrey Pines layout; as he noted Friday, the key would be minimizing mistakes. A pivotal moment came at the par-4 fifth hole. Rahm missed the fairway in a left bunker, then tugged his approach left with the miscue compounded by a bounce off the cart path. He took three strokes to reach the green and drained a 9-footer to save double bogey. He played 1-under from there to the house, but the damage had been done. “I feel like I made a lot of good swings today,” Rahm said after the final round. “Today feels like the first day (73 at Torrey South) … I made a lot of good swings; they just didn’t end up the way I wanted to. “(No.) 5, even the second shot out of the bunker wasn’t bad. If it just stays in the rough, I have an up-and-down chance; hits the cart path and goes to a dead spot … The only thing that could have saved me was maybe making a couple putts, and I couldn’t do that early on to get momentum going. Either way, I knew it would be a tough day. I knew a couple under probably would have had a chance, but I just didn’t have it.” Rahm was bidding to become the first player to win three consecutive TOUR starts since Dustin Johnson in 2017. With a win, Rahm would have moved to world No. 1 – other scenarios including a top-three finish could have also moved him atop the Official World Golf Ranking, pending world No. 1 Rory McIlroy’s finish at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic. It marks a banner January for Rahm regardless. He rallied from a six-stroke deficit in the final seven holes to win the Sentry Tournament of Champions, then outdueled rookie Davis Thompson for his ninth TOUR title at last week’s The American Express. Torrey Pines is a special place for Rahm. He earned his first TOUR title here at the 2017 Farmers and won his first major here at the 2021 U.S. Open. He got engaged to his wife Kelley here. His parents and grandma flew to San Diego for this week. Rahm came up a bit short of the trophy, but it wasn’t for lack of effort. “It’s golf,” Rahm said. “I battled as hard as I could.”