Jon Rahm Aiming For 'Absolutely Incredible' FedEx Cup Title

Jon Rahm thinks a first FedEx Cup title at this week's Tour Championship would cap an excellent season after setting his sights on overhauling Scottie Scheffler, Viktor Hovland and Rory McIlroy who are above him in the standings. 

Rahm is making his seventh consecutive appearance at the East Lake season finale - the joint longest active streak among the elite 30-man field. However, he is still chasing his first FedEx Cup title.

That's something he hopes to address this week. Speaking ahead of the tournament, Rahm said: "It's already been a great year and to cap it off winning the FedEx Cup would be absolutely incredible. 

"It would be something that very few players have done - win multiple tournaments, a Major and the FedEx Cup. So I'm hoping I can be the one that can etch his name next to that."

Last year, Rahm finished on 11-under at the tournament, helped by a second round of 63, and he admits it's an event he enjoys. He continued: "It's always great to be back. It means that you've had a really good year. It's a very select group of people that get to enjoy playing this golf course. To me, it's one of the favourite tournaments that we play all year. 

"It's a great quality golf course. It's always in great shape, even the years we've had quite a bit of rain. So I'm looking forward to it, looking forward to hopefully winning my first FedEx Cup. I've been close in the past and I've played good here.

Among Rahm's achievements in 2023 have been his maiden Masters title, and victories in four other tournaments, including the Genesis Invitational. He admitted becoming FedEx Cup champion would be a fitting way to end the season. 

He said: "There's a difference to being the FedEx Cup champion, just because you earned your spot to this week, and then to just be able to finish it off, right? It feels like it's more than just one week. It's a culmination of a whole year in these last three weeks in a row. So it has a little bit of a different, special feel to it."

The tournament, which features an $18m first prize, will have a staggered start based on FedEx Cup standings.

Scheffler tops the leaderboard at 10-under with the player in second, Hovland, starting at eight-under. They go out last, with Rahm, who begins four behind the leader, teeing it up alongside McIlroy immediately before them. However, the Spaniard insists he is comfortable with the probability of his big-hitting playing partner out-driving him on Thursday.

He added: "Maybe the first few times you're impressed. At this point, it's just the norm. You know he's going to step up there and hit it past you. I'm a hundred per cent confident he can hit it harder than me if he needs to."

Nevertheless, Rahm insists he is fired up and fresh for this week's challenge after admitting to feeling tired after his Masters' triumph in April. He said: "The Masters with the delays and the weekend I had to play, I was a little bit tired. I never quite did have enough time to be able to, like I would say, fully recover from that.

"It was like a slow process for that to happen. But it's a good thing that happened. I learned a lot about myself and hopefully for the next time I'll be better prepared to handle it."

Rahm gets his challenge underway at 1.49pm EDT.