{"id":22666,"date":"2021-06-21T07:39:38","date_gmt":"2021-06-21T07:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/jon-rahm-becomes-a-giant-at-the-u-s-open\/"},"modified":"2021-06-21T07:39:38","modified_gmt":"2021-06-21T07:39:38","slug":"jon-rahm-becomes-a-giant-at-the-u-s-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/jon-rahm-becomes-a-giant-at-the-u-s-open\/","title":{"rendered":"Jon Rahm becomes a giant at the U.S. Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jon Rahm has won the first US Open for Spanish golf with a spectacular finish of two birdies in the last two holes of the Torrey Pines course, on the outskirts of San Diego, California, home of the third major of the year. With his victory, the Biscayan returns to number one in the world ranking.
Rahm started the final round three strokes behind the leader, but enjoyed a birdie start that gave him even more confidence on his way to victory.
As most of the contenders fell behind, it came down to a duel between Rahm and Louis Oosthuizen, with the South African holding a one-stroke lead as his opponent teed off on the 17th.
It was then that Rahm starred in a finish that will go down in the history of the majors by making a pair of birdies on his last two holes to sign for a 67 and win by one stroke.
Oosthuizen missed his shot from the 17th tee and the resulting bogey meant he needed an eagle on the final hole for a playoff. The 2010 British Open champion failed to achieve the feat and his birdie on the 18th for a round of 71 left him on five under par and second in a major for the sixth time.
Rahm\u2019s victory puts him back at number one in the world rankings and comes four years after his first victory as a professional, four years ago at the Wells Fargo Championship on the US PGA Tour.
It also comes just two weeks after he tested positive for Covid-19 and was withdrawn from the Memorial Tournament when he held a six-stroke lead after three rounds.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\u201cI\u2019m a big believer in karma and after what happened a couple of weeks ago I stayed very positive, knowing that great things were to come,\u201d Rahm said.
\u201cI didn\u2019t know what it was going to be,\u201d he added, \u201cbut I knew we were coming to a special place, I knew I got my big win here and it\u2019s a very special place for my family. The fact that my parents were able to come \u2013 I left the Covid protocol early \u2013 I felt like the stars were aligning\u2026.\u201d
\u201cI felt,\u201d he continued, \u201clike a fairy tale story that I knew was going to have a happy ending. I could tell, just going down the fairway after that first tee shot, that second shot and that birdie. I knew there was something special\u201d. in the air. I could feel it. I knew it.\u201d<\/p>\n

.<\/span>
Excited<\/strong>
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to believe that a couple of months ago I was in the hospital with Kepa watching Athletic play the Copa del Rey. Then I run off to the Masters and play well. The PGA I play well again and it had to be a special day like this,\u201d said an emotional Rahm recalling the last few months since the birth of his first son, Kepa, in April.
\u201cWith everything that has happened, to have this day for the family I think we needed it. This is for the family and for Spain. There are a lot of people who have had a terrible time. Corti would surely have been the happiest journalist in the world,\u201d Rahm said, honoring the late El Correo sports journalist Jos\u00e9 Manuel Cortizas, who passed away by Covid in early 2021.
After winning his first major with a one-stroke lead over Oosthuizen, Rahm recalled the putts he practiced as a child thinking about winning a U.S. Open. \u201cBeing very Bilbao, I would tell you, of course, I was sure I was going to win. It\u2019s not that I\u2019m a cool person, but I\u2019ve always been confident and believed in what I can achieve,\u201d said the golfer from Barrika.
\u201cI always had hope, I believed and knew I could make them,\u201d he said after making two spectacular birdie putts on the last two holes. \u201cThey are putts from the Larrabea putting green (the golf course where he started playing) with some slopes, with greens that bounce. I\u2019ve shot them thousands of times and today I was that same child who dreamed of winning a major,\u201d said Rahm, who tries to support children\u2019s golf in Spain and the rest of the world.
\u201cFor those of you who are like me, who have that anger that helps you play golf. You have to know who you are on the golf course, but don\u2019t let it affect who you are off the course. I wish I had understood how to change earlier, but it happened as it was meant to happen. In my case, the birth of my son has helped me to change a lot, to continue to have that anger and competitiveness, but with a little more serenity,\u201d explained Rahm, advising the younger players.
\u201cI\u2019ve worked so hard to try to improve this and the moment comes, where one day you look in the mirror and notice the change. I\u2019m not very proud of a lot of things I\u2019ve done on the golf course, but without those moments, I wouldn\u2019t have transformed into the player I am now,\u201d he explained reflecting on the mental process that has led him to win his first major.
\u201cThis I have not told anyone. Yesterday I took something from my locker and I found a box with the Seve Ballesteros European Tour Player of the Year Award. And I felt something was going to happen today. I know that this trophy meant a lot to him and to Spanish golf,\u201d said Jon Rahm, who joins Spanish major winners such as the late Ballesteros, Guipuzcoa\u2019s Jose Maria Ol\u00e1zabal and Castellon\u2019s Sergio Garcia.
\u201cIt is a pride to win this tournament for Spain. This is for all those who have helped me in Spain: Eduardo Celles, Jorge Losada, the Royal Spanish Golf Federation,\u201d said Jon Rahm, who became a giant at Torrey Pines with the first U.S. Open for Spanish golf and his return to number one in world golf.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jon Rahm has won the first US Open for Spanish golf with a spectacular finish of two birdies in the last two holes of the Torrey Pines course, on the outskirts of San Diego, California, home of the third major of the year. With his victory, the Biscayan returns to number one in the world […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":16666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}