World number two Jon Rahm ended his trophy drought in style with a wire-to-wire victory in the the inaugural Mexico Open.
Rahm, who held a share of the lead on day one and was two shots clear after 36 and 54 holes, carded a final round of 69 at Vidanta Vallarta to finish 17 under par, a shot ahead of Tony Finau, Brandon Wu and Kurt Kitayama.
Finau and Wu both shot 63 to set the clubhouse target, but Rahm made a crucial birdie on the par-five 14th and parred the last four holes to secure the win.
Rahm had not tasted victory since claiming his maiden major title in last year’s US Open, a barren run which saw him replaced as world number one by Scottie Scheffler, whose Masters triumph was his fourth win in the space of 57 days.
A tie for 27th was the joint worst performance of Rahm’s career at Augusta National after four straight top-10s, but the 27-year-old Spaniard was still made a strong favourite for the title at the start of the week.
“I don’t really look at bets or anything like that, I like to think every time I tee it up I’m the favourite because I’m out there to win and I’ve been playing pretty good the last few years,” Rahm told CBS.
“It was a pretty stressful weekend all the way to the end. I didn’t think having a par-five (18th) where a fade off the tee was required I would be stressing this much, but I got it done at the end.
“I let my frustrations out a few times out there but I stayed positive and hopeful and I think it showed in my swings. It wasn’t my best putting weekend but I stayed aggressive and I think the shot on 17 showed that.
“I was confident in what I was doing, I had faith in every part of my game. A couple of those great par putts early on helped out a lot and the one putt from outside five feet that finally went in on 14 was a huge booster.”
Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell finished tied 33th after a three-under-par 68 on the final day left him seven-under-par for the tournament.
On the LPGA Tour, Marina Alex rang up six birdies and saved par at the 18th hole to shoot a five-under-par 66 and earn her second career LPGA Tour title Sunday at the Palos Verdes Championship in Palos Verdes Estates, Calif.
Alex finished with a 10-under 274, beating world No. 1 Jin Young Ko of South Korea by a stroke.
The 31-year-old New Jersey native fought through both an injury and COVID-19 during 2020 and said it was a struggle getting back to peak form.
“I wasn’t sure if this would ever happen again, if I’m being perfectly honest,” said Alex, who last won at the 2018 Cambia Portland Classic. “It’s been tough. We’re all getting older. I’m getting older.
“There’s so many amazing players out here – the competition is really, really difficult – so I just didn’t know if my mind and my body were going to put me back in the position that I was going to be able to do it again.”
Northern Ireland’s Stephanie Meadow finished tied 26th on two-under-par after a final round of 73.
Collated scores
Mexico Open, Vidanta Vallarta (USA unless stated, Par 71):
267 Jon Rahm (Spa) 64 66 68 69
268 Tony Finau 71 68 66 63, Kurt Kitayama 64 70 66 68, Brandon Wu 69 70 66 63
269 Davis Riley 69 65 67 68
270 Cameron Champ 67 66 67 70, David Lipsky 69 68 69 64, Alex Smalley 66 66 70 68, Aaron Wise 65 75 66 64
271 Patrick Rodgers 66 69 66 70
272 Nate Lashley 69 68 64 71, Martin Trainer 72 65 71 64
273 Grayson Murray 73 67 66 67, Chez Reavie 67 71 67 68
274 Jonathan Byrd 64 70 71 69, Lanto Griffin 71 69 69 65, Stephan Jaeger (Ger) 69 71 64 70, Satoshi Kodaira (Jpn) 67 69 67 71, Kelly Kraft 68 69 70 67, Anirban Lahiri (Ind) 68 68 72 66, Adam Long 67 66 71 70, Peter Malnati 68 68 72 66, Andrew Novak 66 67 70 71
275 Michael Gligic (Can) 67 70 71 67, Trey Mullinax 64 69 73 69, Aaron Rai (Eng) 65 69 69 72, Sahith Theegala 65 73 69 68, Gary Woodland 67 72 69 67
276 Ryan Blaum 66 70 70 70, Hank Lebioda 67 67 69 73, Sebastian Munoz (Col) 66 69 71 70, Chengtsung Pan (Tai) 66 70 69 71
277 Wesley Bryan 68 69 67 73, Brice Garnett 70 67 72 68, Doug Ghim 72 65 71 69, Emiliano Grillo (Arg) 72 65 71 69, Charles Howell III 66 69 70 72, Graeme McDowell (NIrl) 70 70 69 68, Scott Piercy 70 68 71 68, Greyson Sigg 66 73 70 68, Cameron Tringale 70 68 70 69
278 Abraham Ancer (Mex) 71 69 68 70, Robert Garrigus 68 72 69 69, Brandon Hagy 66 67 71 74, John Huh 67 70 73 68, Ben Kohles 70 69 72 67, Kevin Na 70 67 73 68, Alvaro Ortiz (Mex) 68 69 70 71, Patrick Reed 67 66 70 75, Brian Stuard 71 68 70 69
279 Scott Brown 65 69 73 72, Tommy Gainey 69 71 72 67, Lee Hodges 68 72 69 70, Mark Hubbard 68 71 71 69, Sung-Hoon Kang (Kor) 68 72 69 70, Carlos Ortiz (Mex) 70 69 71 69, Turk Pettit 72 67 70 70, David Skinns (Eng) 69 69 74 67
280 Bill Haas 70 70 65 75, Matt Jones (Aus) 71 69 70 70
281 Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha) 70 66 71 74, Hayden Buckley 66 73 69 73, Callum Tarren (Eng) 73 67 72 69
282 Justin Lower 70 70 69 73, Brendon Todd 64 74 71 73
283 Pat Perez 67 71 73 72, Wyndham Clark 68 72 72 72, D. A. Points 69 71 74 70, Austin Smotherman 74 66 76 68, Kevin Streelman 71 68 70 75, Matt Wallace (Eng) 70 66 75 73
285 Bryson Nimmer 64 74 74 73
288 Brett Drewitt (Aus) 68 70 76 74
289 Joshua Creel 68 70 77 74
