Genesis Invitational: Tiger Woods produces best performance since car crash as Jon Rahm wins tournament to regain world No. 1 spot
CNN
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Tiger Woods played his best golf since the car accident in February 2021 who threatened to end his career and tied for 45th place at the Genesis Invitational, as Jon Rahm walked away with his third PGA Tour win of 2023 to reclaim the world No. 1 spot.
It was Forests’ first competitive appearance since The Open Championship in July 2022 and his first non-major appearance since October 2020.
The 15-time grand winner has played sparingly since sustaining serious leg injuries in the Southern California crash, but scored his lowest single-round score — 67 on Saturday — since the crash en route to a one-under-par finish for the tournament.
After his final round, Woods said his goal from now on is to play the four majors every year, but he doesn’t expect to “play too much more”.
“My body and my leg and my back just won’t let me play much more than that,” he told CBS. “So that was my goal last year and I was able to play three out of four, and this year hopefully I can play all four. That will be my schedule for the future because of all the limitations I have.
“My game is fine. Yes, it’s rusty. I made a few stupid mistakes here and there and I didn’t pick up the speed of the greens fast enough every day as I normally would when I was playing.
“But overall I feel like I hit the ball like I hit it at home. I just had to bring it here where I had to walk from point A to point B and that was always the difficulty. I’m just so grateful to my whole team for getting me ready every night, morning, to at least give myself a chance to go out and play. I was able to do it.”
Woods added that he expects to play the Masters in April, the first major of the year and a tournament he has won five times.
READ: Tiger Woods apologizes after giving Justin Thomas a tampon at the Genesis Invitational
Meanwhile, Rahm continued his stunning form in 2023 to win the 10th PGA Tour title of his career and Scott Scheffler from the top of the world ranking.
The Spaniard came through a nerve-wracking final-round battle against Max Homa to win by two shots after a final score of 17-under-par, including two birdies in his last five holes.
The victory marks Rahm’s fifth win in his last nine league starts as he continues to play arguably the best golf of his career.
“That was a tough week and a tough Sunday,” Rahm told CBS. “Max fought out there and Patrick [Cantlay] scared us so I’m just glad I was able to get through it at the end.
“I’ve never had three PGA Tour wins in a season before and to do it this early is unbelievable, and to do it on this golf course… I’ve won five of my last nine starts, I’ve finished no worse .” then top seven and I’ve already won three tournaments.
“I don’t need a ranking to tell me something, to validate something, right? I’m having the best season of my life and hopefully I can keep it up.”
