Soseptic but forceful, tender but emphatic, affectionate but firm, Jon Rahm, star of the Spanish Open to be held at the National Golf Center between April 12 and 15, has promised a show to all those who want to enjoy this competition, stating without hesitation that “I come to win”.
The Basque golfer exercised, during the crowded press conference held a few hours before the start of the tournament, a role that he assumes every day with greater comfort despite his youth, a compendium of interesting sensations, a torrent of impacts that he not only does not mind generating, but provokes with a speech reserved for true champions.
Center of attention of dozens of media, Jon Rahm showed why he is becoming every day more and more one of the great references of Spanish sport -not only golf-, undisputed standard bearer in a scenario that devours at breakneck speed all kinds of protagonists.
Jon Rahm, however, has come to stay – “a golfer can stretch his professional life beyond the age of 50, there is no hurry to become a professional”, was one of the messages issued prior to the start of the competition – to set the standard, not only in those golf courses where he dazzles by his explosive irruption among the best, but outside them, where he stands with increasing intensity as an example of management of all kinds of situations.
Endowed with the freshness that comes from youth, Jon Rahm revealed himself as an expert in communication issues, handling scenarios with a poise worthy of the best.
“At this stage of my career, when I left six years ago for the United States, as a boy of just 17, I couldn’t imagine having won just once on the European Tour, so imagine having won in the United States as well,” he acknowledged without a hint of false modesty at the same National Center that, for two seasons, as a member of the Blume National School, constituted his golfing home.
“Back then I didn’t process many of the things they told me at the National School or the coaches of the National Teams, you process everything later. I went to Arizona, I learned English, I was lucky enough to play well and I trained as a player”, he summarized with vivacity before going into the analysis of the course that, from Thursday to Sunday, will be the common enemy of all the participants in the Open de España.
“The course suits the long hitter very well. I expected to find a worse course, but it’s fine, and better than it’s going to be after the rains. As long as the greens and fairways are good, I don’t care how the rough is, it won’t be a determining factor. In the end, although it will depend a little on the weather, it will be a putting contest”, predicted Jon Rahm about a course he has played on numerous occasions when he was part of the National School.
“When I was at the Blume – continued the number 4 of the World Ranking – I would have loved to have an Open at the National Center and to be able to follow a player I liked. Now I’m here and I don’t feel any kind of pressure because there is expectation. In fact, I would like a lot of people to come and watch us play”, said the golfer from Barrika.
“Back then, when I was here, the RFEG denied me the possibility of playing a Spanish Open as an amateur because I would have missed two consecutive weeks of class. Now is when I value that decision because I needed certain grades to be able to go to the USA,” he acknowledged firmly.
The possibility of being number 1 in the World Ranking – “you have to work very hard and a long time to get there”-; playing the Ryder Cup – “I’m sure I’m going to have fun, whoever I play with”-; the importance of training – “not only golfing, but personal training, which makes you grow in every way, opens up more possibilities”-; and the reference to Severiano Ballesteros – “when I saw the trophy room in his house, I started to cry, it seems incredible that it belongs to just one person. I wish I could do a small percentage of what Seve did for Spanish golf”- constituted part of the issues addressed by a Jon Rahm who, regardless of his role in this Open de España 2018, is clear where his desire lies.
“I want to help Spanish golf to improve. I would love to help there are more courses, more players and champions better than me,” he said.
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The most mediatic Open in history
This edition of the Spanish Open is the one that has aroused most interest among the media. Up to 150 journalists have been accredited so far -the tournament has not yet started and this number will be short-, which is a reflection of the effect of the presence of Jon Rahm or Rafael Cabrera-Bello and the good moment of Spanish professional golf in general.
The fact that the tournament has returned eleven years later to Madrid, where an enormous amount of media is concentrated, has also helped to fill the press room to capacity.
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Children in the village, joy at the tournament
The Madrid Golf Federation, within the framework of the Golf in Schools Program, has arranged the visit of 100 students a day from different schools in the Madrid Autonomous Community. The children of the Ermita del Santo (Madrid) and Los Naranjos (Fuenlabrada) schools were the first to enjoy the golfers’ game and the parallel activities aimed at the youngest children that take place in the National Center’s village, an area that has become livelier, more colorful and cheerful with their arrival.
In the following days, Villar Palasí School (San Fernando de Henares), Montessori Enebral, San Patricio (El Soto) and El Catón (Torrejón de Velasco), which will have golf as part of their extracurricular activities, will be lucky enough to have fun at the Open de España.
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