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Next Monday the 30th Jon Rahm can finally return to the top of the world ranking. From this Wednesday to Saturday (this day ends to avoid the timing of the NFL conference finals) the Basque competes in one of the favorite fields and tournaments, the Farmers Insurance Open in Torrey Pines (San Diego) and if there is in the top 3 in the scoring event of the PGA Tour, he will be the new world number 1, unseating Rory Mcilroy, who by the way has arrived as a warrior in Dubai where as of this Thursday he will debut on the DP World Tour (European Tour) this 2023.
Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy
Both are physically separated by more than 13,500 kilometers and twelve hours on the clock. Rahm depends on himself to return to Number One in the world ten months later. The last time he was, on March 26, 2022, he lost it the week of the WGC Match Play in Austin (Texas).
If Rahm wins the Farmers this week, the man from Barrika will be the leader of the ranking regardless of what McIlroy does in Dubai. That is, if the two get the victory, the first of the list will be Rahm when the OGWR rankings are updated this Monday.
In Torrey Pines Rahm debuted his list of professional victories on the PGA Tour in 2017 and in 2021 he won his first 'major', the US Open. Jon comes from winning on Sunday in La Quinta (California) and three weeks ago in Maui (Hawaii).
Barrika's lion plays Wednesday and Thursday with Justin Thomas and Tony Finau. The world number three and leader of the FedEx Cup will start this Wednesday from tee 1 of the south course at 7:40 p.m. Spanish peninsular time (Movistar Golf) together with the ninth on the world list and PGA champion in 2022 (Thomas) and the 12th of the ranking (Finau).
On the 10th tee and on the north course, the second round of Rahm will begin this Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Spanish time. The last two days will be played on the south course at Torrey Pines. Rahm also hopes to match the streak of three consecutive wins on the Northern Irishman's American circuit, which dates back to 2014.
McIlroy chained his hat trick with the British Open and PGA Championship and the Bridgestone Invitational in the summer of 9 years ago. Rahm can get the same thing this Saturday in San Diego: Tournament of Champions, The American Express and now the Farmers.
Regarding the European Tour that started last week in Abu Dhabi, it continues with the Dubai Desert Classic, at the Emirates Golf Club and which, as part of the Rolex Series, has a prize pool that reaches 9 million euros.
Dollars. A tournament in which there are 9 Spaniards: Adrián Otaegui, Adri Arnaus, Pablo Larrazábal, Rafa Cabrera, Jorge Campillo, Miguel Ángel Jiménez, Santiago Tarrio, Ángel Hidalgo and Nacho Elvira.
The tournament can be seen live on television at Movistar Golf, this Thursday, January 26, from 5:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. in the original version and from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. with narration in Spanish, the same slots in which the second round will be broadcast on Friday the 27th.
On the weekend, from 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. in the original version and from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. with narration in Spanish both for the third round, on Saturday, January 28, and for the fourth and last, on Sunday, 29. Rory McIlroy makes his debut in 2023.
He is a two-time tournament winner and has only finished outside the top 10 once in his 10 professional appearances. Viktor Hovland does not return to defend his title. The tournament features 10 players who are part of LIV Golf, including Henrik Stenson and Patrick Reed.
Reed missed the cut last week in Abu Dhabi and according to what the specialized portal 'Tengolf'' publishes, with special envoys to the Middle East he was the main actor in an unpleasant incident on the practice field. Reed came over to greet Rory and his caddy, and the #1 absolutely 'passed' on the American.
"I hadn't even seen him come up to me," McIlroy said at a news conference on Wednesday. And according to what he admitted, he didn't notice that Reed, once he found Rory's refusal to return his greeting, threw some tees at him in a derogatory way.
“I had my back turned, but that seems to be what happened. If the opposite had happened, and it was I who had thrown some tees at him, now I would be waiting for a lawsuit … ”, the Northern Irishman said sardonically.
But there is more, at the press conference McIlroy was asked about the possibility of his 'other' friend Sergio García being chosen by captain Luke Donald for the Ryder Cup team. This Wednesday it became clear that Rory, heavyweight of the European team and therefore of the circuit, would not feel at all comfortable with such a possibility.
The special envoys of 'ten golf' asked him if he saw any way to fix his battered relationship with the man from Castellón, thinking about the possibility (almost nil) of coinciding with him in the Ryder, and his answer was laconic: “ Not".