Rahm becomes the fourth Spaniard to win the Augusta Masters

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The day that Severiano Ballesteros would have turned 66, Jon Rahm was crowned at the Augusta Masters. The 28-year-old golfer from Biscay achieved the second major of his career after his success at the US Open in 2021. In the Augusta garden he became the fourth Spaniard to win the prestigious tournament in an edition marked by weather difficulties , who respected the outcome of the tournament in the last round. Rahm joins Ballesteros (champion in 1980 and 1983), José María Olazábal (1994 and 1999) and Sergio García (2017), also on April 9 in the case of the golfer from Castellón. Against all odds, he took a golf course in such a legendary field and in the process recovered number 1 in the world ranking. by winning with 276 shots, 12 under par, and four less than the Americans Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson.

Augusta owed it to John Rahm. Since his debut in 2017, the year of Sergio García’s victory, he had finished in the top 10 in four of his six starts. In this edition he entered the tournament as one of the favourites, after a splendid season with three victories on the PGA Tour. From the first day he confirmed it with a solid golf that left behind his rivals in an inclement way.

The last one to relent was Brooks Koepka, who came in head to the last face to face. The duel also pitted the two worlds into which golf has been divided since the appearance of the petrodollars from Saudi Arabia, and which has become clear in the run-up to this Masters. The American, winner of two US Opens and two PGA Championships, is the main star of the LIV Tour, the new Saudi circuit, while Rahm has remained faithful to the PGA Tour.

The final day had a double program. In the morning the third round was completed, suspended the day before, in which Koepka kept his two distance shots on Rahm. Both signed a card of one over par, with 73 shots, but the golfer from Barrika had remained in the fight for the title before the fourth round that was to be played a few hours later.

That’s where Rahm’s character emerged, relentless, without giving his rival a truce. He faltered Koepka with three bogeys in the first nine holes of that final round, in which he missed two par 3s. El León de Barrika, meanwhile, went about his business with two birdies on holes three and eight. That hole three marked the future of the game because, step by step, turned the score around in just eight holes, where he recovered four blows on the American. He only gave up a bogey at nine on a putt that got away when it looked relatively easy.

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Emerging unscathed from the famous Amen Corner, With two pars and a birdie at Azalea (the most mythical hole in Augusta), the León de Barrika knew that he had the green jacket waiting for him in the clubhouse. And more so when he signed another birdie on the 14th hole, with a majestic shot off the fairway and under the trees. The best of a day in which he was enormously firm in the approach and only seemed to waver when he was closer to the championship. Koepka recovered somewhat with three birdies on the 13th, 15th and 17th holes, but a bogey on the 17th sunk him for good with a card of 75 shots, three over par. He ended up sharing second place with the eternal Phil Mickelson, 52, who signed 65 shots, the best card of the last round.

Rahm arrived at 18 with the Masters in his pocket, despite a start that went into the trees and then bounced back. He even played a provisional ball in case he didn’t find the first one. It was an anecdote because he finished the hole with another par and a total of 69 on his last round. The Masters was his. And the kiss of his wife Kelly and his sons Eneko and Kepa was the first way to celebrate it on the same green. At 28 years old, due to the maturity of his game, he is called to add more Majors to his record. Yesterday he added the second 40 years after the last Seve Ballesteros Masters.



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