“It had to be today. With this phrase, lying in the arms of José María Olazábal, Jon Rahm summed up the feelings of the nearly 300,000 Spanish federation members who have been cheering him on a grueling Sunday. On the same day that his idol Severiano Ballesteros would have turned 66, the Basque has become the fourth Spanish player to win the Masters at Augusta. The great among the greats.
Seve, winner in 1980 and 1983; Chema, winner in 1994 and 1999; and Sergio García, winner in 2017, have been the three role models for Jon Rahm in his quest for the coveted green jacket, which has come to him at the age of 28 and which carries a prize: the recovery of the number 1 in the World Ranking.
A fact that highlights what Rahm has achieved in these eight years as a professional: he is the only European player to have won the US Open and the Masters at Augusta. No one else has done it. What do you think?
Jon Rahm knew that this April 9 was the time to continue making history, and he knew that Augusta National was the place. All he had to do was wait for Brooks Koepka, absolutely unbeatable on Friday and Saturday, to falter and make an accurate strike. And when the American slightly lost his footing, he was there.
The player from Barrika resumed the third round early on Sunday at the same point where he left it on a rainy Saturday: with a birdie option with which he could deduct a stroke to the four that Koepka took from him. He made the birdie and added another at the 8th to reach the clubhouse for a well-deserved rest before the final round, two strokes behind the American.
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18 masterful holes to win with authority
The duel that was expected between Brooks Koepka and Jon Rahm for a victory in the Masters did not turn out to be such. Or at least, not entirely, because while the Spaniard knew how to play his trump cards with intelligence and success at key moments, the American fell in the first half of the course.
Before delving into this, it is only fair to highlight the spice that two illustrious players with experience in winning at Augusta, Phil Mickelson (-8 total) and Jordan Spieth (-7), put on this final day. Both of them finished with rounds of 65 and 66 strokes, respectively, which left them in a tie-breaker situation if the top two stumbled.
Koepka did it with his grayest golf of the week -four bogeys without any success in the first twelve holes-, but not Rahm. The Spaniard sealed his first birdie of the day on the third with a good putt of about two meters, and repeated on the eighth with an excellent fourth shot that left the ball an inch from the hole.
From that point on, and despite the bogey on the 9th, he felt himself to be dominant and acted as such. The two birdies on the 13th and 14th, the result of apparently simple putts thanks to his solidity with the irons, practically put an end to the matter, and gave him a rare pleasure, to enjoy a comfortable last few holes at Augusta.
In context, Jon Rahm has won with a -12 total and four strokes ahead of Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson. He was co-leader after the first day with the Norwegian Viktor Hovland, both with 65 strokes (-7), and knew how to handle the difficulties and discomfort caused by the heavy rains that hit the Georgia course on Friday and Saturday.
There he began to win the sixth title at Augusta for Spain, just on Seve’s birthday and on the fortieth anniversary of the second green jacket of the Genius of Pedreña. A piece of advice: enjoy this guy. Because he is Spanish, and because he is the best golfer in the world. By far.
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“Winning on Seve’s birthday is very special.”
Moments after putting on his first green jacket, Jon Rahm emphasized that for him “the history of this sport is very important. Seve is one of the reasons why I started playing golf, and winning on Seve’s birthday is something very special, it is a tribute to Seve”.
“The birdie on hole 8 was key, I had to get past the amen corner, where birdies were being made, and then it was also important to stay out of trouble on 11 and 12, and on 13 was when I started to attack.”
One of the first people Rahm crossed paths with after holing the 18th was José María Olazábal, with whom he embraced in a heartfelt hug. “I hope it’s the first of many,” he told me on the 18th hole. He also said something about Seve, and if I had been with him a little longer, we both would have started crying,” said the 2023 Masters winner with emotion.
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