DJ skipping Olympics, cites packed schedule

PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico — Jon Rahm pulled out of a four-way tie with a 12-foot birdie putt on the 14th hole and then held on with pars for a 2-under 69 and a one-shot victory Sunday in the Mexico Open. RELATED: Leaderboard | Winner’s Bag: Jon Rahm, Mexico Open at Vidanta Rahm won for the first time since the U.S. Open last summer at Torrey Pines, and the relief showed in the smile and the way he pumped his arm and then pounded down his fist after tapping in for par on the 18th at Vidanta Vallarta. Tony Finau and Brandon Wu each closed with a 63, while Kurt Kitayama birdied the final hole from a back bunker for a 68. They tied for second. Rahm at No. 2 in the world was a heavy favorite and he played that way from his opening 64. He just didn’t feel any expectations. With the win, he moves to sixth in the FedExCup standings. “I like to think every time I tee it up I’m a favorite. I play to win,” Rahm said. “Fortunately, I got my seventh PGA TOUR win. It was a pretty stressful weekend, all the way to the end.” Staked to a two-shot lead going into the final round, he never trailed. But it was never easy. Rahm’s had a one-shot lead after his lone bogey of the round on the tough par-4 10th. Well ahead of him, Wu holed a 25-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole to join him at 16 under. Kitayama, playing in the final group with Rahm, got up-and-down from right of the green on the par-5 12th to tie. And then Finau went birdie-eagle-birdie to get in the mix and capped off his 63 with a birdie to make it a four-way tie. Rahm never lost his patience. His chip left of the green on the par-5 14th raced 12 feet by the hole, but he hit his best putt of the round and made it for birdie for a one-shot lead. His wedge to the 15th came up short and his chip ran 5 by the hole. He made that to stay in front, and then had to two-putt from 50 feet on the 16th for his par. Rahm missed a 10-foot birdie putt on the 17th that would have given him room for error. Still, the closing par 5 at Vidanta Vallarta is easy reachable, and Rahm birdied it the three previous times. This time, his fade stayed straight and instead of dropping into the bunker, it nestled in deep rough on a steep slope just above the sand. He did well to punch that out just over a waste area and into the fairway. His approach to a back pin just trickled off the green, and he navigated the slick putt perfectly to a few inches. Instead of waiting for Kitayama and Cameron Champ to finish, Rahm quickly stepped in and closed the deal. “I didn’t think a par 5 that requires a fade that I’d be stressing this much,” Rahm said. “It wasn’t my best putting weekend, but I stayed aggressive. I was confident in what I was doing. I have faith in every part of my game and it showed.” Champ, who like Kitayama started the final round two shots behind, took himself out of the mix with a triple bogey on the par-4 eighth hole. He never recovered, shot 70 and finished three shots behind in a tie for sixth. Rahm has 14 victories worldwide. He had gone 17 starts without winning, matching the longest such in his career. The Spaniard has at least one victory in six full years as a pro.

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– Nelly Korda had to work for pars instead of making birdies look routine, and the 23-year-old American did well enough to keep her distance in pursuit of an Olympic golf medal.

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Anirban Lahiri … With his success abroad and now in his fourth season with a PGA TOUR card, the 31-year-old should be a darling of this weekly grouping in the way that the likes of Chez Reavie, Lucas Glover, Russell Knox, David Hearn and others have presented themselves repeatedly in previous seasons. Certainly, there are worse things than plying one’s craft with elevated expectations, but therein lies the rub. Sleepers can’t be stationary. They either rise into regular contenders or, well, they don’t. There’s no such thing as a make-or-break season in professional golf, at least not for talent projected to play for years to come, but it’s time for him to take that next step on this circuit. The Desert Classic is as good a place as any as he recorded a top 30 in both of his previous appearances. His last three starts worldwide in 2018 included a T10 at Mayakoba and a T20 in Indonesia. Harold Varner III … Maybe the fourth time’s the charm. He’s 0-for-3 in the Desert Classic despite beginning two of the three third rounds inside the 54-hole cut line. Even worse, he’s a combined 5-for-12 with zero top 25s in his career on the West Coast Swing. It’s an odd trend on the wrong side of the ledger given he’s enjoyed success on all types of grass. But again, perhaps this is the year he turns it around given he already has three top 15s among four top 25s this season and ranks 18th in adjusted scoring for which 16 of his 18 rounds were under par. He also placed T16 at the Australian PGA Championship in early December. Dylan Frittelli … A Sleeper du jour for all of 2018-19, the 28-year-old from South Africa has opened his first season with membership with three cuts made in as many starts. Baked in between, he closed out the 2018 European Tour season with a pair of top 25s, competed in the World Cup of Golf and opened the 2019 European Tour season with a pair of top 15s in three starts. Finished 12th on that circuit last year in scoring average and T8 in par-5 scoring. While he’s a debutant at the Desert Classic, his confidence and recent form serve as a potent combo. Plan on it to be a recurring theme. Dominic Bozzelli … Commanded attention among hardcore fans at the Sony Open in Hawaii where he was burning the last start on a medical extension. He started the final round on the bubble to fulfill its terms but closed with 3-over 73 to finish T33. The bright side is two-fold. First, he already had secured conditional status as a safety net in the fall, so he opened the 2019 portion of the season near the top of that category from which he’ll play for the remainder. Second, he arrived at the Desert Classic free of the shackles of pressure to play out from under the medical. In that vacuum, it can’t go overlooked that he’s riding a modest consecutive cuts-made streak of four. He also placed fifth in his debut here in 2017. George Cunningham … The 23-year-old product of the University of Arizona took a pass on what would have been his debut as a Web.com Tour rookie in The Bahamas in favor of a sponsor exemption into the Desert Classic. He secured Web.com Tour status when he finished second on the Order of Merit on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada in 2018 with a win and three more podium finishes among six top 10s. He also slotted second in scoring average. Already 2-for-2 in PGA TOUR competition, including a T36 earlier this season at the Shriners where he ranked third in fairways hit and co-led in par-5 scoring. Two weeks later, he shared 13th place at the Dunlop Phoenix in Japan, leading the field in total driving and finishing T3 in greens in regulation. NOTE: Sleepers is a relative term, so Rob uses unofficial criteria to determine who qualifies. Each of the following usually is determined to be ineligible for this weekly staple: Winners of the tournament on the current host course; winners in the same season; recent major champions; top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking; recent participants of team competitions.

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