Jon Rahm has lived a fairytale ending this Sunday at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, the grand finale of the European Tour in which the Spanish golfer has achieved a new victory in his debut year to reaffirm his status as a great star of world golf. The Spaniard, who finished fourth in the Race to Dubai, achieved his third victory of the season in the Emirate and moved up one step in the world ranking to fourth place.
As Miguel Ángel Jiménez and Álvaro Quirós did in previous years, Jon Rahm won this great final with extraordinary brilliance. With one day to go, he was second with a total of -14, always going one better in the tournament, as his rounds of 69, 68 and 65 showed.
With that in mind, he teed off Sunday on the first tee, knowing that to win he had to overcome the competition of, among others, Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose, in the middle of the Race to Dubai.
The first big news of the day was Sergio Garcia’s great 65, which moved him up nine places to fourth place and a comfortable view of the outcome at the Jumeirah Golf Estates clubhouse.
The stellar matches were still to finish, which were developing with maximum equality. Little by little, some of the big players were giving way: three bogeys between the 12th and 16th discarded Justin Rose, a circumstance that Shane Lowry took advantage of to take the lead with -18.
And there was Jon Rahm, with a firm and determined pace, without conceding a single bogey. His birdies on holes 14 and 16 put him in the lead with a -19 that did not budge. Two good pars on the 17th and 18th and a discreet finish by South African Dylan Frittelli certified the victory of the player from Barrika. One more in an impressive year.
The week has already started in the best way for Rahm, who received in Dubai the Sir Henry Cotton award that designates him as the European Tour Rookie of the Year. This title is the result of an impressive year in the Old Continent, whose icing on the cake was the triumph in Ireland. This victory in Dubai confirms all the good omens.
“It’s going to take me a few weeks to assimilate what I’ve done this year. It’s hard to believe everything I’ve accomplished,” said Rahm moments after collecting the trophy.
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