Jon Rahm and the public have won the Open de España 2018, two important triumphs united by a literally electric connection that has turned golf, during four exciting days, into an authentic mass spectacle, with thousands and thousands of people surrendered to a truly magical event.
The Basque golfer closes one of the victory circles that he had longed to complete at some point in his already undoubtedly successful career, in what was his debut at the Spanish Open, a goal that has been achieved in an accelerated manner, like everything related to a curriculum that develops at a simply supersonic speed.
“I come to win,” said Jon Rahm with the conviction that characterizes him on the day before the start of a tournament that has become one of the most emotional and beautiful pages in the history of Spanish golf, adorned by an enthusiastic and multitudinous public in a historic edition that has raised a great player and fans to his level.
Curiosities of life and of the annals of this sport, Jon Rahm’s victory is linked to the one also achieved on April 15, but in 1972, by Antonio Garrido, when the illustrious Spaniard became the first Spanish winner of the European Tour by winning the Open de España that year at the Club de Golf Pals, the first tournament held in our country within the structure of the European Tour and which was also the first regular event of this Circuit.
Forty-six years later, because of the fairy tales of sport, glory once again brings together in a loving embrace the Spanish Open and a Spanish golfer, in this case Jon Rahm, destined to push a sport of the masses to unsuspected extremes.
The final day, simply exciting, was a hunt and capture of the Spaniards Nacho Elvira and Jon Rahm over the Irishman Paul Dunne, a golfer of undoubted class that during the previous 54 holes had been simply relentless.
One and two strokes behind the leader at mid-morning, with 18 holes to reverse that situation, Nacho Elvira and Jon Rahm engaged in a simply epic duel in which Paul Dunne could not find the formula to participate, weighed down by two bogeys on the 11th and 14th that constituted the end of some already doubtful victorious options during the first round.
Oblivious to this, Jon Rahm and Nacho Elvira, in different matches, fought at a distance for the coveted title, an exclusive mano a mano full of replies and counter-replies, where timely birdies -the first two holes of Jon Rahm- and even eagles -the one consummated by Nacho Elvira on the 5th, to keep pace with the Basque – only increased the tension, dethroned from his vantage point the aforementioned Paul Dunne, while Jorge Campillo, fifth classified, contributed to increase, thanks to another great performance, the victorious halo of Spanish golf.
Jon Rahm, reiterative in his hits, took the initiative in the middle of the course in a phase of the same where the Basque scratched the shots to the course that the Cantabrian longed for, a desire culminated in the face by Nacho Elvira when two consecutive birdies, on holes 13 and 14, returned an equality to the scoreboard broken irreversibly at the moment in which Nacho Elvira faced the 17th hole, point of the course where, after sending the ball into the water and then missing a putt of just a few centimeters, cut off all his chances of victory in the framework of a performance in any case outstanding.
At the same time Jon Rahm arrived at the 18th hole, crowded with public, where he signed his usual birdie. And with it also came the collective madness, the applause of gratitude, the standing ovation of recognition, the end of an absolutely magical Open de España 2018.
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