PGA Tour winners and losers: Jon Rahm dominates, Jordan Spieth stumbles in golf’s Hawaii swing

Another island round has come to an end for the PGA Tour, and two eventful weeks in Hawaii have created some interesting storylines for the rest of spring. Two distinctly different events emerged as two weeks passed, and not all winners were equal at Kapalua and Waialae.

In the first week, Jon Rahm knocked out Collin Morikawa at the Tournament of Champions. In the second week, Hayden Buckley managed to overtake Si Woo Kim for his first career win at the end of the Sony Open. (Spoiler: He was unsuccessful.)

However, a lot happened outside of those two endings and I wanted to look at a few winners and losers (relatively speaking, as always) from two weeks in Hawaii. Let’s dig inside.

Jordan Spieth

It’s been an exciting two weeks for Golden Child. After a Tournament of Champions where he (by himself) didn’t play his smartest golf but still finished T13, he took the lead after Round 1 at Sony… only to lose strokes in each category on Friday for anyone’s third-worst round in the field. He went from first-round lead to slipping on Friday night. Spieth did make some great quotes, though. He revealed that he and his wife bought an RV to go to events and made some “colorful” comments about the state of his game from years past. Despite the terrible second round at Waialae, I think (perhaps a bit oddly) Spieth left Hawaii a bit more swagger than when he arrived. Verdict: Loser

Hayden Buckley

He was Sunday’s first loser, missing an 11-foot hit that should have turned into a playoff against Kim. Still, the runner-up finish is the best of his career on the PGA Tour and one of his two best in his last four major league appearances. I don’t know if Buckley will ever become a top 10 player in the world, but Joseph LaMagna recently outlined why he is likely to be a force for a long time. Here’s another thing that I find interesting: Over the past 12 months, Buckley has been the only player in the top 15 most accurate drivers in the world, who is also above average when it comes to tee length (which is what I’m talking about). This leads to LaMagna’s point below). Verdict: Winner

Collin Morikawa

I don’t know what to do with Morikawa here. Some of the shine from his early career days has faded; he experienced the feeling of not winning every time in a dispute (which was pretty much what happened in his first two years on the PGA Tour). So while I think there’s some scar tissue there and some questions in his head that didn’t exist before, I also believe he’s smart and diligent enough to adapt over time. And if we believe that clumping is inevitable, then I would argue that playing early in the season instead of in the major championships — not to mention Morikawa is still in the early stages of his development. career — is the best path. So while I think some of the invincibility he had before will never return, I’m leaning towards him leaving Hawaii as the winner for the lead. hyped up at the Tournament of Champions will likely speed up his adaptability as a high-level pro who has had some success. Verdict: Winner

Xander Schauffele

The world No. 6 withdrew from the Tournament of Champions early due to a back injury but joined The American Express this week. I don’t think I can consider him a winner because he didn’t finish in an event, but it’s nice to see him come back so quickly after some real concerns about his health. that. Verdict: Loser

To Kim

I also feel conflicted about Kim. On the one hand, he is currently overrated. Statistically, he is not a top 14 player in the world as the Official World Golf Ranking would suggest. However, his personality and star power are alluring and shown everywhere — asking the cameras if they caught him hiding in Kapalua is example #583 of this. no — so much so that I find myself constantly drawn to him and his game. His swing also reflects this. He finished 5th at the Tournament of Champions and missed out at the Sony Open. Verdict: Both

Jon Rahm

Is this the six-win season I’ve been predicting for the past four years? His win at the Tournament of Champions reminds me of something Rory McIlroy said at the end of 2022 at the DP World Tour Championship when he won the season-long race in Dubai but Rahm won the tournament. realistic golf. Although McIlroy was (and still is) ranked number 1 in the world, he feels Rahm is always with him. Those two are the two best players in the world right now, and it’s not even close. Over the past three months, McIlroy hit 3.7 strokes per round while Rahm hit 3.4. No one else achieved more than 2.6. Verdict: Winner

PGA . Tournament

The first two events of the year are symbolic of what I believe will happen with the PGA’s new enhanced events schedule. The top 20 players on PIP have committed to playing the same 17 events (including four majors) in one year. As such, you’ll have a star-studded matchup between two top 10 players, followed by an exciting yet light-hearted battle between younger players or new entrants. Of course, this is not how every tournament will play out, and most of these have played out with more structure. This is not a bad thing for the PGA Tour, but I think it can become It would be a bad thing if it didn’t change the way FedEx Cup points are distributed — for example, Rahm gets 550 for winning, Kim gets 500 — or how it markets its flagship events. Why am I not blown away by the advertisements and marketing of an enhanced Kapalua tournament?

It seems that people are not willing to admit that there is a real dichotomy in Tour right now and the sooner people rely on it (media, fans, players, broadcasts, PGA Tour) the better the overall product will be. I don’t think the Tournament wins or loses here — both events are roughly the same — but I hope it does a better job of highlighting the disparity between advanced and non-enhanced events. Verdict: TBD