Jon Rahm stops painting The Players 2023
Rahm scored -1 after the opening round, and is expected to play in the same group with Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy in round 2. Under this structure, The Players have recorded a top 3 OWGR team for the first time in 20 years.
However, at midnight on March 10, Hanoi time, the PGA Tour announced: "Jon Rahm - the top player in the OWGR and FedEx Cup tables - has just withdrawn from The Players Championship due to health reasons."
Rahm retired midway at a PGA Tour last time in June 2021, when he contracted Covid-19 right at the top of the table with a six-stroke lead and only one round left at the Memorial tournament in Dublin, Ohio.
28-year-old Rahm, playing professionally since 2016, has won a total of 10 championships on the PGA Tour, including the major US Open 2021, in addition to eight titles on the DP World Tour. He has accumulated 46 weeks holding the top of OWGR.
On the PGA Tour this season, Rahm has participated in seven tournaments with six top 10 finishes, including three cups. Thanks to that high form, he topped the world professional men's golf table as well as the FedEx Cup.
According to the current OWGR, Scheffler is second, right above McIlroy. At The Players 2023, both players have the ability to usurp Rahm.
When Rahm left The Players, Scheffler needed at least a three-way T5 and McIlroy didn't reach eighth in singles. As for McIlroy, he needs to at least finish T2 duel with the condition that Scheffler is below T5 triple.
On the FedEx Cup, only Max Homa has the Rahm pass. To do that, Homa must win The Players 2023. The tournament started in 1974, "resident" on the Stadium par72 of the TPC Sawgrass golf complex in Florida since 1982. This year's prize fund touches 25 million USD of which part won 4.5 million USD.
Round 2 of this term was postponed because of bad weather. When the organizers announced to stop the match, Homa finished with the even par score and finished at T39. Meanwhile, Scheffler finished 10 holes, temporarily standing at T6 (-5), and his teammate McIlroy is likely to be cut off when reaching +6 but the expected filter score is +1.
The top of the table is standing at -8, belongs to Christiaan Bezuidenhout who has completed 14 holes and Adam Svensson has just gone through 11 holes and T3 (-6) has two hands that haven't finished the round.
On OWGR, Bezuidenhout is 81st, 24 places below Svensson.
