121st U.S. Open
Rahm Rises To World Number One With Maiden Major Win
Rolex Testimonee Jon Rahm won the 121st U.S. Open to capture his maiden Major title, becoming the first Spanish player to win the Championship.
Jon Rahm displayed impressive accuracy, precision, and spirit throughout the tournament to win, attributes that resonate strongly with Rolex’s own pursuit of perpetual excellence in its watchmaking and all other endeavours. As part of the Rolex New Guard, Rahm has been one of golf’s most outstanding performers in recent years, capturing four Rolex Series titles and reaching the pinnacle of the Official World Golf Rankings in 2020.
In winning this global Championship, the 26-year-old Spaniard secured the first Major title and 13th victory of his professional career as well as rising to No. 1 on the Official World Golf Ranking. He joins an esteemed group of players to have won their first Major at the U.S. Open including fellow Rolex Testimonees Jack Nicklaus, Curtis Strange, Brooks Koepka and Bryson Dechambeau.
Following Sunday’s final round, Jon Rahm said, “It’s incredible that I’m sitting next to this trophy. I’ve been close before, and I just knew on a Sunday, the way I have been playing the last few Majors, I just had to be close. I knew I could get it done.”
Renowned as one of America’s greatest public golf courses and situated atop cliffs towering above the Pacific Ocean, the South Course at Torrey Pines previously hosted the Championship in 2008 and once again produced four days of testing conditions, placing a premium on accurate driving and precision putting. Coming back from threeshots behind after 54 holes, Rahm closed with back-to-back birdies to post a final round 67 to finish with a six-under-par total of 278, to win by one stroke.
At the 17th hole, the Spaniard
spectacularly curled in a tension-packed leftto-right birdie putt from just inside 25 feet and again at the par-5 18th, blasting out of a bunker and rolling in a breaking 18-footer to seize the lead.
After stunning, fist-pumping putts to reach the clubhouse, Rahm watched as 2010 British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen played the last four holes. A tee shot left into bushes resulted in a bogey that left the South African two adrift, and a closing birdie was only good enough to leave him a major runner-up for the sixth time in his career.
“I played good,” Oosthuizen said. “Jon played a great round of golf. Errant tee shot on 17 just cost me. I fought really well to stay in it and just fell short again.”
On the same course where he won his first US PGA title in 2017, Rahm became only the fourth US Open winner to close with back-to-back birdies, matching Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Ben Hogan.
He became the first Spaniard to win a US Open and the fourth to capture
“I’m a big believer in karma and after what happened a couple weeks ago, I stayed really positive knowing good things were coming. I just felt like the stars were aligning and I knew my best golf was to come. That’s why I played as aggressive as I did, because this is my day, everything’s going to go right. I felt like that helped me. I just knew that I could do it and believed it.”
a major title after Sergio Garcia, Jose Maria Olazabal and the late Seve Ballesteros. “This was definitely for Seve,” Rahm said. ‘’I know he wanted to win this one most of all.”
The new world number one topped the rankings briefly last year after winning the Memorial, but tested positive for Covid-19 during this year’s event after 54 holes where he was forced to withdraw after seizing a six-stroke lead.
“I’m a big believer in karma and after what happened a couple weeks ago, I stayed really positive knowing good things were coming. I just felt like the stars were aligning and I knew my best golf was to come. That’s why I played as aggressive as I did, because this is my day, everything’s going to go right. I felt like that helped me. I just knew that I could do it and believed it.”
The U.S. Open champion said fittingly, “I believed from the biggest setbacks we can get some of the biggest breakthroughs, and that’s why I stay so positive. The fact I stayed patient and hopeful and believed something good was coming my way is what helped. I never lost hope for a second.”
Rolex has been the Official Timekeeper at the U.S. Open since 1980, as part of its long-standing support for golf that spans more than 50 years. Jon Rahm adds his name to a long list of Testimonees to have won the Championship, including Arnold Palmer (1960), Jack Nicklaus (1962, 1967, 1972, 1980), Gary Player (1965), Tom Watson (1982), Curtis Strange (1988, 1989), Tiger Woods (2000, 2002, 2008), Martin Kaymer (2014), Jordan Spieth (2015), Brooks Koepka (2017, 2018) and Bryson Dechambeau (2020).