Jon Rahm maintains world number 1 with Kitayama victory

Jon Rahm has retained the world number 1 despite its disappointing finish and the very real threat of scottie scheffler and Rory McIlroy within Arnold Palmer Invitationalwhose last champion was kurt kitayamawho at the age of 30 premiered his record on the American PGA circuit in this way:

In this moment @Kurt_Kitayama became a champion on the PGA TOUR @APInv 🏆 pic.twitter.com/LEr5doBs8e

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 5, 2023

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The American and the Northern Irish would have dethroned the Basque golfer if they had won the tournament. Scheffler was also eligible to finish second alone or in a tie with another player, but his 4th place and McIlroy’s 2nd place left Rahm at the top of the rankings, a position he regained with his recent title at The Genesis Invitational.

Jon started this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational in great form, as the sole leader after day one (65). However, his course went wrong on Friday (76) and he never corrected it after signing cards of 76 and 72 on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

Rahm had a total of 289 strokes (+1) at the end and was tied for 39th place, 10 strokes behind the champion, Kurt Kitayama (72), who took the lead from the Spaniard on Friday and held it until the last victory, with one stroke ahead of McIlroy (70) and the American Harris English (70).

Rahm finished outside the top-10 for the first time after nine consecutive tournaments, between 2022 and 2023, always in that elite group. In five of the last 10 appointments, the Barrika player was the champion: Spanish Open, DP World Tour Championshipfrom the European tour (2022), Sentry Tournament of Champions, American Express and The Genesis Invitational (2023).

final classification

Arnold Palmer Invitational

pair 72
​279 Kurt Kitayama (USA) 67-68-72-72
280 Rory McIlroy (Irl.N.) 73-69-68-70
Harris English (USA) 69-72-69-70
281 Scottie Scheffler (USA) 68-72-68-73
Jordan Spieth (USA) 68-69-74-70
Patrick Cantlay (USA) 68-71-74-68
Tyrrell Hatton (Eng) 71-72-66-72
…
283 Viktor Hovland (North/10th) 71-71-66-75
289 Jon Rahm (ESP/39th) 65-76-76-72