The golf wheel keeps turning. The fight between the American circuit and the Saudi League does not stop: the latest move of the PGA Tour was to announce eight high tournaments for 2024, without cuts and reserved for 70 to 78 players, with a juicy prize pool that gives the answer checkbook by LIV Golf. By the way, the bags are filling up with more appointments and there is the option of testing the American circuit in Spain. Meanwhile on the field, round and round. The number one in golf is changing hands again. Jon Rahm has ceded the throne to American Scottie Scheffler after celebrating The Players, the fifth major.
Rahm retired from the tournament before the second round due to gastroenteritis after a -1 first round. Rory McIlroy, contender for the top spot, missed the cut. And the regency was served to Scheffler on a platter, worth a fifth-place finish with three players. There was no discussion. Scheffler won at -17, five ahead of Tyrrell Hatton. Incidentally, he became the third player in history to simultaneously hold the Augusta Masters and The Players crowns. The other two, the two great legends, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
After placing 39th at last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, he stopped for Rahm. Despite everything, the Basque has accumulated five wins in his last 10 tournaments in a fabulous streak since late last year. Rahm will rest until he competes in the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play in Texas on March 22-26. First big of the season on the horizon. From April 6th to 9th, Augusta will open the doors of the Masters.
Outside of the cream competition, Spanish bingo was sung by Jorge Campillo, who won the Kenyan Open at the European circuit. The 36-year-old golfer from Extremadura was -18 and two shots ahead of Japan’s Masahiro Kawamura, followed by two other Spaniards: Santiago Tarrío landed three shots back 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 win this year after Rahm’s three on the PGA Tour (Sentry, American Express and Genesis). The record for tournaments won by Spain in a calendar year is nine, in 1988 and 2017.
“Where I come from, from the small town, I am very proud. Put my name on the same trophy as Seve [Ballesteros venció en Kenia en 1978] for a Spaniard that’s something special, of course,” said Campillo.
Final classification of The Players.
Final classification of the Kenyan Open.
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