Jon Rahm Leads CareerBuilder Challenge Entering Second Round

LA QUINTA, CA – Spaniard Jon Rahm holds a one-shot lead over three golfers entering Friday's second round of the $5.9 million CareerBuilder Challenge.

Rahm will play at the Nicklaus Tournament course at PGA West Friday after shooting a bogey-free 10-under-par 62 at the La Quinta Country Club Thursday. Americans Austin Cook, Jason Kokrak and Andrew Landry are tied for second.

Rahm played his first seven holes at La Quinta Country Club at 6- under, including back-to-back birdies and an eagle on the par-5 fifth. He added birdies at the 11th, 13th, 14th and 18th holes to complete his best round on the PGA Tour. The CareerBuilder Challenge is Rahm's 36th tournament on the PGA Tour.

Rahm said his success was the result of the fast start and bypassing last week's Sony Open in Hawaii after his second-place finish in the Tournament of Champions.

Rahm said he did not play last week "trying to forget about" his play at the Plantation Course at Kapalua, "because that week is so unique" with the course's "massive fairways, big slopes, a lot of grainy greens" and "tons of wind."

"It's unlike what we play all year long," said Rahm, third on the Official World Golf Ranking, the highest among the 156-player CareerBuilder Challenge field.

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Rahm spent last Monday through Thursday at his Phoenix-area home "working more on my body than the swing because I kind of needed to reset."

Rahm turned pro in 2016 after getting his degree in communications from Arizona State University, where he was the only two-time winner of the Ben Hogan Award in 2015 and 2016, as the top male collegiate golfer, and a four- time NCAA All-American.

Rahm was fifth in the FedExCup standings in 2017, his first full season on the PGA Tour, which included first career PGA Tour victory, winning the Farmers Insurance Open.

Landry's 9-under-par 63 at La Quinta Country Club was his lowest score in his 26 tournaments on the PGA Tour. He had the day's best start, with a 7-under-par 29 for his first nine holes. Landry began his round on the 10th hole.

Cook, a PGA Tour rookie, made seven birdies and an eagle on the fourth hole at the Nicklaus Tournament Course for a bogey-free, 9-under 63.

Kokrak played his final five holes at La Quinta Country Club, the fifth through ninth, at 5-under-par, including an eagle on the sixth hole.

Palm Desert High School senior Charlie Reiter shot a 4-under-par 68 at La Quinta Country Club and is among 20 golfers tied for 42nd.

"From the beginning I kind of was just trying to have fun," Reiter said. "I was trying to settle my nerves on the first tee, took a little slow start and then I kind of got settled in and had a lot of fun out there."

Playing in front of a gallery he said had "a lot of people I knew" including "a couple of my teachers" and nearly all of his teammates, Reiter pared his first two holes, then had back-to-back bogeys, and an eagle on the fifth hole that "kind of jump started my round."

Reiter birdied the sixth and ninth holes to finish the front nine at 2- under-par 34. Reiter also had birdies on the 11th, 13th and 14th holes and a bogey on the 16th.

Like the rest of the field that played at La Quinta Country Club Thursday, Reiter will play at the Nicklaus Tournament course at PGA West Friday. He said his goals were to "just have fun and try to shoot as low as I can.

"Just mostly having fun though," said Reiter, who is the first amateur to receive a sponsor exemption in the tournament's 59-year history.

The pop rock band Huey Lewis and the News will perform on the driving range at PGA West following the conclusion of the round.

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--City News Service/Image via Jim Edwards