Featured Groups: Wyndham Championship

The Farmers Insurance Open is always circled on Jon Rahm's calendar. Torrey Pines was the site of his first PGA TOUR victory and he proposed to his wife, Kelley, near the scenic clifftop course that overlooks the Pacific Ocean. Any concerns that he is ailing as he prepares to play one of his favorite stops on the PGA TOUR are unfounded, Rahm said Wednesday. His decision to withdraw from last week's The American Express got "blown out of proportion like crazy." "It was a little bit of a tweak in the gym, nothing much," Rahm said. "I think it was more overdoing it in the winter, maybe not getting rest. And I could have played last week. I decided not to just because I didn’t want to force it. ... I just wanted to be 100% sure it was going to be fine for this week. It’s a long year. "I had no pain by Monday. It was just more about the fact that besides being cautious, I just wouldn’t have been able to really be hitting balls and practicing by maybe late Tuesday, Wednesday. Physically I’m feeling great, so nothing to worry about." He wanted to play last week in La Quinta to test his new Callaway equipment in different conditions. He finished T7 at the Sentry Tournament of Champions in his debut as a Callaway staffer, but that was on the unique Plantation Course at Kapalua that forces players to deal with extreme, sidehill lies and strong crosswinds. Playing The American Express, which he won in 2018, would have allowed him to use his new equipment in more typical tournament conditions. The conditions in the Southern California desert are often called "dome golf" because of the lack of wind. "I actually wanted to play last week to get rounds in with the Callaway stuff. The only tournament I played was in Hawaii where you have crazy lies, crazy winds and a bit of an unusual golf course, right?" Rahm said Wednesday. "I was looking forward to playing a tournament where the greens are perfect, very similar conditions to what I practice on in Scottsdale." Rahm has three top-5s in four starts at Torrey Pines, which will also host this year's U.S. Open. He won the 2017 Farmers Insurance Open by three shots thanks to eagles on Nos. 13 and 18 on Sunday. He also finished runner-up last year - after taking a one-shot lead into Sunday — and T5 in 2019. Rahm is 23rd in this season's FedExCup standings in just five starts. He has finished no worse than T7 in his last three starts, including a runner-up finish at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP @ SHERWOOD and T7 at the Masters. He is coming off the best FedExCup finish (4th) of his career after posting his first multi-win season on TOUR. He won both the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide and BMW Championship in 2020.

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After clinching 2022-23 PGA TOUR membership with a top-10 finish at last week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic, it might’ve seemed Tom Kim’s week at the Wyndham Championship would be a victory lap of sorts. His opening hole Thursday at Sedgefield CC did not fit that bill. Kim made a quadruple-bogey 8. How did this happen on a 422-yard par 4? After finding the left rough off the tee, Kim advanced his second shot less than 50 yards. His third sailed over the green; his fourth failed to reach the green and caught a slope, funneling to the back fringe. His fifth rolled back to his feet. His sixth made it up to the fringe, 9 feet from the hole. He two-putted for 8. Kim, though, refused to let his day be defined by one hole. He didn’t record another score above par, and he accrued seven birdies. The 20-year-old South Korea native signed for a 3-under 67. He became the third player in the ShotLink era (established 2003) to make a quadruple bogey on the first hole and record an under-par score. Not just under par. Three strokes clear. “I was laughing,” said Kim of his reaction to the opening hole. “There was nothing I could do. It was just the first hole and gosh, I just got a really bad lie and then didn’t really have another good lie and didn’t really have another good lie, didn’t really have another good lie. It turned out not bad. “I was only laughing because it was the first hole of the day and it was probably the worst start I’ve ever had in my career so far. All I could do was laugh because just some shots I hit there were pretty awful. But I don’t know, for some reason I felt calm. It was one bad hole and I just told myself, you know what, I can still get this, I can still shoot under par today, and somehow I did.” Throughout the season, Kim’s game has displayed a maturity beyond its years. He arrived in North Carolina with seven made cuts in eight starts, highlighted by a solo third at the Genesis Scottish Open in early July. With a solo seventh at last week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic, he now holds 417 non-member FedExCup points this season, which would rank No. 97 on the Playoffs and Eligibility Points List. He has guaranteed a top-125 spot upon the conclusion of the Wyndham Championship, which in turn provides 2022-23 PGA TOUR membership. He would need to win the Wyndham Championship to earn a Playoffs spot, and he’s six back of early leader John Huh. Considering he was 4-over after a single hole at Sedgefield, that doesn’t seem out of the realm. “You want to start good, and a start like that wasn’t the best,” said Kim, whose rally included three consecutive birdies on Nos. 13-15. “But I told myself, hey … it’s just one hole, so just keep pushing. There are definitely a lot of opportunities out there. “I got a good birdie on 3 to just kind of get my momentum and had a really good up-and-down on the par-5 (fifth). Just kind of kept pushing. Felt like after the first hole, I kind of played really solid.”

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