SAN DIEGO (AP) - Jon Rahm of Spain added his name to the burgeoning list of young stars Sunday with his big game and a big finish at Torrey Pines.
Rahm made two eagles over the final six holes, the last a 60-foot putt from the back fringe on the par-5 18th for a 5-under 67 to win the Farmers Insurance Open by three shots for his first PGA Tour victory.
Rahm, who turned 22 in November, beat Phil Mickelson’s mark as the youngest champion at this tournament. He also became the first player in 26 years to win his first PGA Tour title at Torrey Pines.
Rahm hit 4-iron into 18 feet on the par-5 13th and holed the eagle putt to tie for the lead. He stuffed a wedge into 5 feet on the 17th to take the lead, and he finished with his long eagle putt that broke hard to the right and peeled back to the left and dropped in on the side of the cup.
On a day in which nine players had at least a share of the lead, the final 20 minutes only mattered for positions. Rahm finished at 13-under 275, three shots ahead of Charles Howell III (68) and C.T. Pan of Taiwan, who had a 70. Brandt Snedeker and Patrick Rodgers, tied for the lead going into the final round, fell back with too many mistakes on the back nine.
Rahm might have won for the first time, though this was hardly a surprise.
He won the Ben Hogan Award his final two years at Arizona State as the top college player, along with the Jack Nicklaus Award his senior year as the best golfer. He spent 60 weeks at the No. 1 amateur in the world. Two years ago in the Phoenix Open, he tied for fifth while still at Arizona State.
And when he turned pro last summer, he earned his PGA Tour in four starts, tying for third in the Quicken Loans National at Congressional and finishing runner-up by one shot at the Canadian Open.
PURE SILK BAHAMAS CLASSIC
PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas (AP) - Brittany Lincicome won the LPGA Tour’s season-opening Pure Silk Bahamas Classic in wind and some late rain, beating U.S. Solheim Cup teammate Lexi Thompson with a birdie on the first hole of a playoff.
Playing a group ahead of Thompson, Lincicome birdied the par-5 18th - after dropping strokes on 14 and 17 - for a 5-under 68 and 26-under 266 total - one off the tour record for relation to par to by Annika Sorenstam on a par-72 course in the 2001 Standard Register Ping.
With Lincicome looking on from a tent, Thompson played the 18th as strong sideways rain blew through the Ocean Club, holing a 3-footer for her third straight par and a 70.
In the playoff on 18, Lincicome hit her hybrid second shot from 227 yards to 20 feet and tapped in for birdie. Thompson went through the green in two and, after Lincicome holed out, missed a 15-footer.
The first U.S. winner since Brittany Lang in the U.S. Women’s Open, the 31-year-old Lincicome won her seventh tour title and first since the 2015 ANA Inspiration.
Stacy Lewis, undone by a triple-bogey 7 on No. 14, was third at 25 under after a 71.
Gerina Piller (71) completed the Solheim Cup quartette atop the leaderboard at 24 under.
Nelly Korda birdied the two late par 5s in a 67 to tie for fifth at 21 under in her first start as an LPGA Tour member. The 18-year-old Korda is the sister of Jessica Korda - the 2014 winner who shot a 65 on Sunday to tie for 16th - and daughter of former tennis player Petr Korda.
QATAR MASTERS
DOHA, Qatar (AP) - South Korea’s Jeunghun Wang made a 3-foot birdie putt on the first hole of a playoff to win the Qatar Masters for his third European Tour title.
The 21-year-old Wang closed with a 1-under 71 to match South Africa’s Jaco van Zyl (68) and Sweden’s Joakim Lagergren (66) at 16-under 272 total.
In the playoff on the par-5 No. 18 - Van Zyl three-putted for par, and Lagergren also could only make a par after finding the fairway bunker.
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