time in his career. Former UCLA and Servite High standout Patrick Cantlay fired a 4-under 67 to take third at 14 under.

“I am having the best season of my life and hopefully I can keep it going,” Rahm said. “I’ve never had three PGA Tour wins in a season and to do it this early on is incredible, and to win at this golf course. Talk about the history of Riviera as a golf course, the history of Tiger Woods as a player, those two combined in this tournament, it’s a pretty big deal. As a historian of the game, to be able to win a tournament hosted by Tiger (a tournament that neither Tiger nor Jack Nicklaus have ever won) it’s pretty incredible.”

Early in the final round Rahm made one of his few bad swings of the week, sending his wedge shot over the third green and into the rough, leading to his first bogey of the day. Homa birdied the hole, cutting Rahm’s lead to a single stroke.

Rahm built his lead back to three when he stuck his approach shot on eighth hole within 2 feet of the pin for an easy birdie, and Homa made bogey.

Homa cut the deficit to two with a birdie on No. 9, and when Rahm bogeyed the par-4 10th and Homa birdied, the two players were tied with eight left to play. Over the next three holes Rahm and Homa struggled to find the fairway off the tee. On No. 12, Rahm three-putted for bogey to give Homa the lead but the former Valencia resident returned the favor with a bogey of his own, leaving them tied heading to what turned out to be the pivotal par-3, 14th hole.

After putting his tee shot on the back edge of the green, Rahm sank a 27-foot birdie putt to retake the lead. Two holes later, he flushed an 8-iron that came to rest a foot from the pin, a shot that essentially sealed the win for Rahm.

“My best swing of the week,” Rahm said of his shot on 16. “I’m proud of myself for resetting when things got difficult (early in the back nine). On that 13th tee, hitting a bad tee shot and just kind of resetting and knowing that if I were to somehow save par there and finish the last five under par, I was most likely going to be the champion. That putt on 14 was huge, a great par putt on 15 and that shot on 16 obviously.”

Playing in the same group with Rahm over the final 36 holes reinforced Homa’s belief that Rahm is not just one of the greatest players in the game today but perhaps one of the greatest the game has ever seen.

“I would say other than Tiger and I don’t even know, he’s the most consistent player I’ve seen,” Homa said. “He has zero weaknesses. He’s been this dude for a long time. I think he’s got the highest win percentage in the last several years, he’s got the highest top 10s by a mile. The guy’s incredible.”

Trailing by three shots going into the final round, Homa said he wanted to push Rahm and not allow him to back into the title.

“I wanted to make him beat me and I think I did that,” Homa said. “It was cool to see myself push him and not feel like I had 100% of my game. I played great everywhere but off the tee on that back nine, but it is what it is. I was going to have to put up a pretty remarkable score. I think it’s pretty amazing going against someone like Jon. You know he’s not going to fold.”

Rahm has now finished in the top 10 in his previous 10 consecutive starts and in five of those tournaments he finished in the top five, including three wins since the start of 2023. Since January. Rahm has won more than $9 million and in doing so became the fastest golfer to eclipse $40 million in career earnings, doing so in just 136 starts. Tiger Woods needed 146 to surpass that mark.

While he’s proud of all he has achieved over his career and in particular the last six months, Rahm said winning at Riviera is special.