CNN
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Spanish golfer Jon Rahm overturned a seven-shot deficit at the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii to win his third PGA Tour title in six starts with a stunning comeback.
The world No. 5 even bogeyed Sunday’s first hole but went on a remarkable run to finish the final round with a 10-under-par 63.
Rahm finished the tournament at 27-under-par, defeating two-time major winner Colin Morikawa by two shots.
Morikawa went into Sunday’s final round with a 6-shot lead atop the chasing pack, but three bogeys on the back nine gave him a one-under-par 72 and allowed Rahm to make up the deficit.
“I needed to play well and he needed to make some mistakes,” Rahm told the BBC.
“If you had told me at the beginning of the round after that bogey I was going to do what I did, I don’t know if I would have believed you.”
It was Rahm’s eighth career PGA Tour victory and the 28-year-old will go down as the winner of the tour’s first “fixed” event with an improved purse, which was launched to compete with the rise of LIV Golf.
It is the first of 17 events this season — including four majors — that will carry the designated event tag, with a total purse of $15 million and Rahm earning $2.7 million for his win.
Most of the remaining designated tournaments will have total purses of at least $20 million, with the Players Championship bringing in an eye-watering $25 million purse.
While Sunday proved to be a happy day for Rahm, Morikawa was disappointed and frustrated with his final round performance despite scooping up $1.5 million for his second-place finish.
“You work very hard and you give yourself these opportunities,” Morikawa, the 2021 Open winner, said, according to the BBC.
“I just took three bad swings, really, at the wrong time. It’s never a good time to take a bad swing, but sometimes, it works and it doesn’t.
“I don’t know what I’m going to learn from this week, but it doesn’t seem like it was that far off. It really wasn’t. Yes, it’s bad.”