Raging Rahm rises from tyro to mature matador
JON RAHM was 13 and walking back from the practice range at the Centro Nacional de Golf in Madrid when his coach asked him about his ambitions in the game.
‘Well, it’s quite simple,’ came the reply. ‘I want to be the best player in the world.’
On a memorable Sunday in Ohio, just four years after he turned professional, Rahm’s ambition came to fruition with a lovely touch of serendipity at the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village.
By the side of the 18th green, where fellow Spaniard Jose-Maria Olazabal once danced an impromptu Ryder Cup victory conga in 1987, Rahm received a congratulatory fist bump following his eventful victory from tournament host Jack Nicklaus.
Then he set himself another, still loftier goal. ‘I want to be like you,’ he told the Golden Bear, and promptly burst into tears.
The emotion was understandable. On Saturday, the grandmother Rahm had been close to growing up was buried in Madrid, another silent victim of the pandemic, and the second close relative he had lost.
‘Neither passed away because of Covid-19 but both were in nursing homes and I think they died because of the mental effects of the quarantine,’ said the 25-year-old.
‘My grandmother taught me so many things growing up and I have so many memories of her.’
Rahm was certainly tested on the final steps of his climb to the summit and looked to be running out of oxygen at one point, as a seemingly commanding lead of eight strokes with nine holes to play dwindled to just three standing on the 15th tee.
It had been the same in Dubai at the back end of last year, when he was nearly chased down by Tommy Fleetwood before becoming the first Spaniard since Seve Ballesteros to win the European Order of Merit.
Here, he was trying to follow in Seve’s footsteps once more, hitherto the only Spaniard to become world No 1.
Again, like in Dubai, Rahm came through his mental test by showing a gossamer touch around the greens when it really mattered, in this instance a fabulous chip-in under enormous pressure at the 16th that carried the hallmark of the greatest sorcerer of all.
‘I just wish the shot didn’t now have an asterisk next to it, because it was the greatest chip I ever played,’ said Rahm.
He was referring to the stupid twoshot penalty he was later given because the ball, buried in a cushion of heavy rough, had moved a dimple when he placed his club behind it.
Thank goodness it merely meant the eventual winning margin over American Ryan Palmer was reduced from five shots to three. How dumb would the game have looked if it had cost him everything?
Instead the story remained a feelgood one. Rahm called it ‘one of the happiest days of my life’ and no wonder. When you think Spaniards of the calibre of Olazabal and Sergio Garcia never made it to the top of the world, it underlines his achievement.
This victory was his first since becoming a married man and continues his pleasing progress from the tantrum-fuelled tyro to the mature matador.
‘I’d have had no chance of coming through that back nine and winning this event a couple of years ago,’ admitted Rahm.
‘I’d have done something foolish, and lost my cool. I’m not proud of some of the tantrums I’ve thrown and how foolish I’ve looked but I’m changing, and I think you can see that. I’m happier, and I’m growing up. It’s as simple as that.’
As for the man he replaced, Rory McIlroy’s latest reign ended with a timid 77, but there are grounds for believing it might prove a blessing. Imperious before the lockdown, he’s paid the price for playing with a distracted air since the restart.
‘Rory might be the man suffering the most with having to play with no spectators,’ opined Sir Nick Faldo, on American television.
At least McIlroy now has something to concentrate the mind, with the USPGA Championship just a fortnight way.