Carlota Ciganda has crafted a magnificent opportunity for victory at the FM Championship, a tournament making its debut this year on the LPGA Tour calendar with the highest prize purse of the regular events, taking place at the TPC Boston. Just hours away from the start of the final and decisive round, Carlota has no other goal in sight but victory. Not surprisingly, she starts from the third position, three strokes behind Jin Young Ko, a tough nut to crack, and one behind Lauren Coughlin.
The Navarrese has long had the goal of winning again on the LPGA each year, but in this final round she also has another much smaller, more domestic and even circumstantial challenge, but equally interesting. It is about surpassing Jon Rahm, Sergio García and Rafa Cabrera Bello at the TPC Boston.
The Massachusetts course, located southwest of the Celtics city, is making its debut on the LPGA Tour calendar, but has been a popular stop on the PGA Tour calendar for years. Between 2003 and 2018, the Deustche Bank Championship was held there continuously, which rose to the category of play off of the FedEx Cup from 2007 and in 2017 and 2018 was called the Dell Technologies Championship. With the reduction of the play offs from four to three, it became a rotating venue for the Northern Trust. Its last PGA Tour tournament was in 2020.
In short, the PGA Tour has been played at TPC Boston 17 times and the Spanish presence has been regular and quite successful, although we have never been able to celebrate a victory. Up to four different Spaniards have played there: Sergio García, the most consistent with seven performances, Jon Rahm, who caught the last years, Rafa Cabrera Bello and Gonzalo Fernández Castaño.
Well, in those 17 seasons Spanish golf has managed to add a total of five top 10s on the course designed by Arnold Palmer in 2002 and which underwent a deep restoration in 2007 by Gil Hanse and Brad Faxon. The best Spanish results at TPC Boston were fourth places by Sergio García in 2013 and Jon Rahm in 2017. In addition, Sergio finished fifth in 2008, Rahm was sixth in 2020, the last visit of the PGA Tour to those parts, and Rafa finished seventh in 2018. That is, in the last three appearances of the PGA Tour at TPC Boston, Spain has always scratched at least one top 10.
Now, Carlota has the opportunity to register the best result of a Spanish golfer at TPC Boston. Finishing in the top three would be enough, but at this time, the Navarrese will settle for nothing less than victory. She also knows that it would be a significant morale boost for the European Solheim Cup team.
By the way, the list of winners at TPC Boston includes impressive names: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Vijay Singh, Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Thomas or Rickie Fowler. Quite something.
