Rahm is hero at idol Tiger’s den
Young Spaniard sweeps to four-shot victory at event hosted by the 14-time Major winner
ALBANY, BAHAMAS: Jon Rahm held his nerves, withstood some serious pressure from Tony Finau and made his aggression count on the five par-five holes at the Albany Golf Course to win the Hero World Challenge on his debut appearance at the 18-player invitational tournament on a warm and humid Sunday afternoon.
His 20-under 268 over four days was four shots ahead of Finau who kept pace with the Spaniard till the 14th hole where the tall 29-year-old American of Samoan and Tongan origin made a double bogey. The 24-year-old Rahm birdied that hole and suddenly shot into a three-shot lead.
Finau mishit his tee shot wide left of the green and beyond the rope. He hit his recovery shot into the bunker. The second recovery shot went into the swale on the other side of the green and he finished with a double bogey.
The 14th, like the 7th, is a driveable par-four and a likely hole for birdie. Rahm repeated what he did on the seventh. Finau matched him on the seventh but faltered on the 14th. Rahm birdied all the five parfives. Finau managed to birdie just two of them. That made the difference in the end. A late charge by Justin Rose took him to third at 15-under 273.
EMOTIONAL MOMENT
“You know, that Sunday with Tiger (Rahm defeated Woods in singles in the Ryder Cup in Paris) is one of the most emotional, most important moments in my golf career. I started crying when I was shaking his hand because that meant so much to me to play against Tiger Woods. A couple months later to win his event, this is really special. I grew up watching all those events and watching Tiger win so many times.” Rahm said after his victory.
Incidentally, Rahm’s golfing career took off in 2016 when as an amateur he got an invite for the Quicken Loans National PGA event at the Congressional, hosted by the Tiger Woods Foundation. He finished third there and that earned him the PGA card. “Today, I really wasn’t looking at anybody else. I just stuck to myself, stayed really in the present, never got ahead, never got really hung up on the past. You know, I think that made me execute every shot as best as I could just because my mind wasn’t distracted,” Rahm added.
ATTACKING PAR FIVES
Going into the final round in a three-way tie between Rahm, Henrik Stenson and Finau, the Spaniard, who will jump to sixth in the world from eighth by virtue of this title, stuck to his strategy on this course. On Saturday itself he had revealed that the key to succeed at Albany was attacking the par-five holes. On Saturday, Finau had birdied four of the five par-fives and caught up with the leaders.
On the final day, Finau edged ahead early with back-to-back birdies on the second and third. Rahm too birdied the par-five third but it was a bogey by Finau on the fourth that brought the scores back level. The two went neck and neck till the par-three eighth. That is where Finau faltered the first time. He lined up his tee, but then pulled out of the shot. He lined up again and hit wide left of the green. His approach landed some distance from the pin and he finished with a bogey. Finau was chasing from then on and as the holes came down he felt the pressure and faded in pursuit of Rahm.
›I started crying when I was shaking his hand because it meant so much to me to play against Tiger Woods. JON RAHM, on the special win