Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
PORTSTEWART PREPARED FOR A RAHM RAID..
SPANISH sensation Jon Rahm has confirmed he will tee it up in the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open. The world No.12 will join tournament host Rory Mcilroy (inset), Olympic champion Justin Rose and a host of the world’s top golfers at Portstewart on July 6. The 22-year-old has emerged as one of the most exciting players on the planet over the past six months. Following a spell as the world’s top amateur, Rahm joined the PGA Tour last season and earned his breakthrough win in the Farmers Insurance Open this January. He finished tied third in the Wgc-mexico Championship before reaching the final of the WGC Match Play, where he took world No.1 Dustin Johnson to the final hole. Rahm became a European Tour member at the start of March is currently ranked third on the Race to Dubai. He said: “I’m really looking forward to playing on the European Tour this summer. “As a European, it has always been an ambition of mine to be part of the European Tour and hopefully one day play in a Ryder Cup, so I can’t wait to get going. “I have some great memories as a kid watching the Spanish players competing in the big European Tour events on TV and it will be special to be able to now play in them myself. “Obviously Seve, José Maria and Sergio have all won the Irish Open over the years, so it will be great to try and follow in their footsteps at Portstewart. “Also, I’m really pleased to support Rory and everything he is trying to do for the event through his Foundation. “I’m also looking forward to playing a different style of golf on the links of Portstewart which will be valuable preparation for The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale as well.” Meanwhile, Rahm’s compatriot Sergio Garcia says he needs to move on from his “overwhelming” Masters victory. Five weeks after slipping on a green jacket at Augusta National, Garcia returned to action in the Players Championship and admitted he struggled to fully focus on his game. The world No.5 said: “At The Players I had a couple nice rounds and a couple not so nice rounds, but it’s been very overwhelming. I’m not going to lie. “It’s been amazing to see the reaction from the people and the players and everyone. “It’s obviously been something amazing to go through but, at the same time I have to move on. “As nice as it is to be the Masters champion, I need to keep doing things, I need to keep improving on every aspect of my game and focus on the week that we are in right now, because it’s easy to start thinking about what happened a month ago.”