Golf, Jon Rahm wins the Augusta Masters and returns to world number one

Augusta (Georgia) – Six years after Sergio Garcia, another Spaniard, Jon Rahm, a 28-year-old Basque from Barrika, won the Masters, in the wake of a tradition inaugurated by the great Severiano Ballesteros (’80 and ’83) and continued with Josè Maria Olazabal (’94 and ‘ 99). He won with full merit, abundantly recovering in the final lap the two strokes advantage of the American Brooks Koepka who even, at the time of the suspension on Saturday afternoon due to bad weather, had four strokes of margin, before losing two in the morning restart of the third tour. Rahm hooked him on hole 4, overtook him on 6 and never gave up again, ending up distanced him by 4 lengths (69 strokes against 75 in the final round) on a sun-warmed Sunday at last. Closing at -12 he collected the 3 million and 700 thousand dollars destined for the winner.

The timeless Phil Mickelson, with an extraordinary lap in 65 strokes (-7) managed to recover by joining Koepka in second place. No one his age (almost 53) had ever pushed so high in this tournament. In fourth, tied, Spieth, Reed and Henley with -7.

It is Rahm’s twentieth victory, the second in a Major after the US Open 2021 and gives him back the primacy in the world rankings, in which, in recent months, he has alternated with Scottie Scheffler (reigning champion, finished 10th ) and with Rory McIlroy, eliminated after two days. That this, even more than ever, could be his year, Rahm had made it clear immediately, winning three tournaments in America between January and February, before being held back by an injury.

His success came on a historic day for Spanish golf: April 9, the date of birth of the “patriarch” Severiano Ballesteros, who would have turned 67 today if a serious form of cancer had not killed him in 2011, at just 54 .

He was unable to hold back his tears, remembering him in recent days, his fraternal friend and companion Olazabal and not even Rahm escaped emotion while, as per tradition, the previous winner, Scheffler, put his first green jacket on his shoulders .

The “derby” between the American Tour and the Arab League

There were 18, young (minus one) and strong “renegade” players who abandoned the American Tour attracted by the mega engagements of the LIV (the Arab super league) admitted to the Masters. And they are not at all agonistically dead. In 12 they passed the cut, in three they finished in the first four places. Koepka, fighting for the title almost to the end, was the best together with the aforementioned “grandfather” Mickelson, even capable of taking the lead in the provisional classification among those who had already completed the round, with a total score of -8 . And even Patrick Reed, with a lap in 68, moved upstream to catch Spieth in fourth place.

The “derby” between champions of both Leagues can now only exist in the four Grand Slam tournaments, which are managed independently of the two Tours and have decided not to close the doors to anyone who can have the title. Next episode in a month, at the PGA Championship.