Jon Rahm made spectacular use of one of the longest closing days in the history of the year’s first major to catch up. The 28-year-old Spaniard won the 87th Masters in Augusta (Georgia) with a final round of 69 and a total of 276 strokes (12 under par). It is his second major success after the US Open three years ago. The Basque snatched victory from American Brooks Koepka, who had been in the lead after 18, 36 and 54 holes, on a total of 30 holes that had to be played on Easter Sunday due to the weather disruptions.
As round three resumed early that morning, the Basque was four strokes behind Koepka – a deficit that Rahm immediately reduced to two strokes. It helped that Koepka, who had already triumphed four times at one of the four highlights of the season, never found his game that day and literally collapsed. In the end, after a round of 75 strokes, the 32-year-old American even had to share second place with his 52-year-old compatriot Phil Mickelson, who played the best round of the day with 65 strokes. The 52-year-old left-hander set a record with this second place: The three-time Masters champion is now the oldest “runner-up” in the history of this traditional tournament.
But the man of the day on this wonderful, sunny spring day (16 degrees) was Rahm. After the sixth hole, he had ousted his teammate from the top spot for the first time and, apart from a mistake on the ninth hole, he finished his round without a single mistake. He seemed calm, composed, patient, did not take unnecessary risks and always executed the right shots. So his victory was already certain for the fans after his fourth birdie on the 14th hole.
Victory on the birthday of the great idol
Rahm not only won the Masters as the fourth Spaniard after Severiano Ballesteros, José-Maria Olazabal and Sergio Garcia. He also achieved this triumph on a special day: April 9th, the 66th birthday of his idol Ballesteros, who died in 2011. In 1980 he was the first Iberian and first European to win the Masters and repeated this success 40 years ago. “That was a win for Seve. He was up there and helped me,” said Rahm after last year’s American winner Scottie Scheffler, who this time finished eight strokes behind in shared tenth place, had helped him into the green winner’s jacket.
Americans Jordan Spieth (66 strokes), Patrick Reed (68) and Russel Henley (70) shared fourth place, five strokes behind.
Like Scheffler last year, Rahm also celebrated his fourth victory of the year on the PGA Tour with the Masters triumph. He not only received prize money of 3.24 million dollars (around 2.95 million euros) for his victory, but also rose again to number one in the world – the deserved reward for a professional who performed the same way that day expected from the leader in the industry.
Even when Rahm totally screwed his tee shot for the first time on the 18th hole and he had to hit another so-called makeshift drive, there was not the slightest doubt about his victory. He was lucky the ball bounced off a tree and bounced back onto the turf in front of the fairway. Rahm set the ball up with a 4-iron, circled the ball very close to the hole with the third shot and sank for par.
The celebration could begin. First Rahm hugged his caddy Adam Hayes, then his American wife Kelley and his two sons, two-year-old Kepa and Eneka, who was born eight months ago. His father was also there, but Rahm hearted the 57-year-old Olazabal the hardest, who had failed at the cut. The Masters champion of 1994 and 1999 aptly summarized how his compatriot acted on the pitch that day: “Jon showed no weakness, always had everything and himself under control.”
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