Sunday Swing | Rahm and Hendersons Winning Club Combinations

The Sunday Swing

January 22nd, 2023

Welcome back to another edition of the Sunday Swing presented by 2nd Swing Golf. This week the PGA Tour was in La Quinta, California for the playing of the American Express. The LPGA Tour was also back in action, competing at the HGV Tournament of Champions from Lake Nona Country Club in Orlando, Florida.

The American Express - Tournament History 

The American Express was first played in 1960 and was won by The King, Arnold Palmer. This event features a unique format that includes three separate courses- PGA West Stadium Course, La Quinta Country Club, and PGA West Nicklaus Tournament Course. Each player plays all three before the field is cut in half after 54 holes. These three courses all produce a lot of low scores which usually makes for a shootout on Sunday. The past five champions are as follows: 

2023 - Jon Rahm (-27)
2022 - Hudson Swafford (-23) 
2021 - Si Woo Kim (-23) 
2020 - Andrew Landry (-26) 
2019 - Adam Long (-26) 

The Big Swing 

Jon Rahm is on fire. His victory at The American Express is already his second win of 2023, so of course he earns the Sunday Swing once again. After winning in Hawaii a couple weeks ago, Rahm took last week off before teeing it up at the American Express this week, which featured a surprisingly star-studded field that included the likes of Rahm, Xander Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay, Tony Finau, and Tom Kim.

Despite the big names in the field, Rahm found himself battling with some unlikely competitors on Sunday afternoon. It was 23-year-old Davis Thompson, who played collegiately at the University of Georgia, who found himself at the top of the leaderboard for most of the week. Thompson came out of the gate hot on Thursday when he fired a ten under par 62 to open the week, taking everyone by surprise. After following that up with rounds of 64 and 67, the youngster found himself tied at the top heading into the final round with arguably the hottest player on the planet. The pair remained close all day as neither player ever really caught fire, but players like Xander Schauffele (62) and Chris Kirk (64) surged up the leaderboard and applied pressure. 

Rahm and Thompson entered the 16th hole tied, but an errant tee shot on the par 5 by Thompson opened the door for Rahm to gain a one-shot lead. Then, on the 17th green, Thompson’s 50-foot birdie attempt rattled off the center of the flagstick but didn’t drop, resulting in pars by both players. When Thompson failed to make birdie on 18, Rahm just needed par to claim his second title of the young season and that’s exactly what he did. 

Winner’s Bag - Jon Rahm

The hot streak for Callaway Paradym continues as Rahm wins again and makes it three straight for team Callaway. Nothing changed since Rahm’s last win 2 weeks ago and I don’t expect any changes to be coming anytime soon. This week Rahm played the Callaway Paradym Triple Diamond driver (10.5 degrees) and two Paradym Triple Diamond fairway woods (3-wood HL at 16 degrees and 5-wood at 18 degrees). Along with his new clubs, Rahm reps a Callaway Apex UT (21 degrees) and Callaway Apex TCB irons (4-PW). In the short end of the bag is a set of Callaway Jaws Raw wedges (52, 56, and 60 degrees) and an Odyssey Rossie S White Hot OG putter. 

In the World of Women’s Golf

The LPGA Tour has returned this week in what should be another exciting year in the women’s game. Women’s golf is in arguably the best spot ever and there’s no better way to start the year than with the HGV Tournament of Champions. Headlining the field were some of the biggest names in the game including Nelly Korda, Leona Maguire, Yuka Saso, Danielle Kang, Brooke Henderson, and Jennifer Kupcho. While there were many names to keep an eye on this week, there’s no denying that Canadian Brooke Henderson is one of the hottest players on the LPGA Tour right now. In 2022 she picked up two victories including her second major championship. Not only did Henderson stay hot, she won in commanding wire-to-wire fashion and even had a four stroke cushion. This week it was her consistently solid ball-striking that helped her claim her 13th LPGA Tour title. Henderson hit 58/72 greens and 40/56 fairways throughout the week and she paired that with great putting –  averaging just 28 per round. Rounding out the top 5 was Charley Hull, Maja Stark, Nelly Korda, and Nasa Hataoka.

Henderson recently made the switch to join TaylorMade’s tour staff and plays a Stealth 2 Plus driver (9 degrees), Stealth 2 Plus fairway woods (15 and 18 degrees), Stealth 2 Rescue (22 degrees), P790 irons (5-PW), Milled Grind 3 wedges (50, 54, 60 degrees), and a Spider GT Center Shaft putter.