MEXICO CITY – Jon Rahm had a 5, 4, 3 and 2 on his card in Saturday’s third round of the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship.
Oh, and a 1.
Rahm’s numerical brilliance included an ace on the par-3 17th, where he one hopped his tee shot into the hole from 158 yards using a gap wedge to make his second hole-in-one on the PGA Tour.
In all, his card showed a 1, three 2s, four 3s, eight 4s and two 5s that totaled 61 shots at Club de Golf Chapultepec, a score of 10 under and a course record. The next lowest score in the round was a 65.
It was a special card and a special day from the get-go as Rahm began with four consecutive birdies and six in his first seven holes. He finished with nine birdies.
“I basically had tap-in, tap-in, tap-in and 10 feet for birdie, and I thought, today could be a really special day,” Rahm said. “And then backing it up with a great birdie on 6 and then 7 and a great tee shot on 8, which is a difficult tee shot, I thought it could have been the day it ended up being.
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“I had a little bit of a hiccup, a three-putt on 8, and it’s just a difficult hole, but everything balances out. I think a lot of us like to talk sometimes about how unlucky we get, and I think today was one of those days where I got fortunate. I hit the right shots and I got the right bounces, and I took advantage of it.
“It was my lucky day, and combined with really good golf, today happened.”
Now he has a chance to win come tomorrow’s final round. Rahm, the world’s No. 3-ranked player who started the day 10 shots behind the leaders, can become the world’s top-ranked player if he wins and Rory McIlroy finishes third or worse. But he still has work to do.
Rahm is at 11 under and will start the day four shots behind world No. 4 Justin Thomas, who despite a final-hole bogey shot 65 to reach 15 under. Patrick Reed (67) and Erik van Rooyen (67) are one shot back of Thomas. Also at 11 under are world No. 1 McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau (71).
“I’m just really happy that after the first two days I’m going to have a legitimate chance tomorrow without needing to shoot 59 or something like that,” said Rahm, who opened with rounds of 72-69. “So luckily I took care of that today and hopefully tomorrow I can just put a solid round together and have a chance. But it’s really unique. I think we all compete and want to win tournaments when everybody is playing their best, and if you win one of those stacked fields, it’s a lot of fun, and it’s a great accomplishment, so hopefully I’m the one on top tomorrow afternoon.
“I just need to stay focused, know that I’m not going to get as lucky as I did today, and maybe know that I’m not going to make every putt I look at. Just stay confident that I’m under control of my golf swing and keep hitting the right shots and hopefully get a decent start and give the leaders something to think about.”
Thomas lost in a playoff here two years ago to Phil Mickelson, was ninth last year and tied for fifth three years ago. One of the many strengths of his game is his wedge play, and in the thin air here – the course rests 7,800 feet above sea level – Thomas can get a lot of wedges in his hands.
“I played a lot of really, really solid, good golf throughout the middle of the day and made some good putts when I needed to and hit a lot of good putts that didn’t go in, as well,” he said. “Definitely a lot more positives than negatives.
“For the most part I feel like I’m playing well, doing all the right things. Just my bogeys this week have been sloppy, so I’d really like to have a clean card tomorrow and just give ourselves a good chance the last couple holes.”
Reed leads the field with 34 one-putts and is confident heading into the final round despite not being as sharp Saturday as he was Friday.
“It wasn’t as solid as I wanted it to be, but I still hit a lot of quality golf shots,” he said of the third round. “I still hit a lot of quality putts. But there were a couple areas there that I feel like, not really as much swing errors, just kind of mental errors. Putting balls in the wrong spot, trying to be too aggressive on certain shots. That seemed to get me in a little bit of trouble. Instead of having a 20-footer for birdie, I’d have to chip from off the green.
“But one back going into tomorrow, it’s all you can ask for. Hopefully play well tomorrow and we have a chance to win a golf tournament.”
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