PROOF POSITIVE
RAHM GOES FROM COVID QUARANTINE TO U.S. OPEN CHAMP
SAN DIEGO — Jon Rahm should consider buying some property alongside the majestic canyons and Pacific Ocean at Torrey Pines. The place has proven to be pure heaven for him.
Before Rahm went on a scintillating late rampage to win the U.S. Open on Sunday at Torrey Pines to capture his first career major championship, he’d already bagged his first career PGA Tour victory on the course, winning the 2017 Farmers Insurance Open, and he asked his now-wife Kelley, to marry him while hiking along the trails that surround the property.
“I do love Torrey Pines,’’ Rahm said, “and Torrey Pines loves me.’’
Rahm’s seminal win came just two weeks removed from being forced to withdraw from the Memorial after he had built a six-shot lead through 54 holes because he tested positive for COVID-19. That cost him a chance to repeat as champion as well as $1.7 million.
“I’m a big believer in karma,’’ an emotional Rahm said. “After what happened a couple weeks ago, I stayed really positive knowing big things were going to happen. I didn’t know what, but we were coming to a place where I got my first win and it’s a very special place for me and my family. I just felt like the stars were aligning.’’
When he walked off the 18th green after his round, Rahm was embraced by Phil Mickelson’s brother, Tim, who was his college golf coach at Arizona State. Rahm told Tim Mickelson: “I believed it.’’
Phil Mickelson, who’d finished play hours earlier, came back to the course to give Rahm a huge hug.
Rahm’s play on the final two holes of the daunting South Course — birdies on 17 and 18 that elicited raucous roars from the packed COVID-be-damned crowd — were as electrifying as they were stone-cold clutch.
He finished the tournament 6-under par for the week after shooting a 4-under-par 67 in the final round to overtake South African Louis Oosthuizen (5-under), who finished second in a major championship for a remarkable seventh time in his career.
Rahm, who elevated to No. 1 in the world, became the first player from Spain to win a U.S. Open and he dedicated the win to Seve Ballesteros, his Spanish golfing idol who never won a U.S. Open “but I know he wanted [to] win this one most of all.’’
Rahm also became only the fourth player in the U.S. Open’s storied history to birdie the final two holes to win it — joining Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson.
Classy company.
Classy performance. Rahm’s birdie on 17 came when he buried a curling putt with about 6 feet of break and it tied him for the lead with Oosthuizen at 5-under.
Then, on the par-5 finishing hole, Rahm piped a 300-plus-yard drive into the fairway, hit his second shot into the right greenside bunker, splashed out to above the hole and, when he made the slippery down putt, he unleashed an upper-cut fist pump with such violence it would make Tiger Woods blush.
After Oosthuizen had appeared so unflappable on the back nine while everyone else around him (except, of course, Rahm) faltered, he appeared to tighten up as soon as Rahm’s 6-under score was posted. Then he finally blinked on the 17th hole. Oosthuizen’s chances to win were dashed when he hit his tee shot on 17 into the penaltyarea gulch. It left him with a bogey, dropping him to 4-under par and two shots behind Rahm entering the final hole, a deficit he was unable to overcome on 18.
The day dizzying with seismic shifts of the momentum and lead became difficult to keep up with.
Russell Henley and Mackenzie Hughes, two players with little experience playing in the cauldron of major-championship finalround pressure, began tied for the lead at 5-under par along with Oosthuizen. Henley and Hughes, predictably, struggled under the white-hot lights, Henley shooting 75 and Hughes 77.
As they went backward, Rory McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa and Rahm made their moves.
McIlroy, who’s been chasing his fifth career major for the past seven years since his last one, started the day two shots back and vaulted himself into a tie for the lead on the front nine before a bogey on 11 and a double on 12 doomed him.
DeChambeau, the defending champion, made the turn with a one-shot lead at 5-under and shot 44 on the back nine.
Koepka bogeyed 16 to fall to 3-under, and then, trying to force a birdie to get into the clubhouse at 4-under, he bogeyed the par-5 18th to finish 2-under.
Morikawa took a double bogey on the par-5 13th hole to fall to 2-under and then he ended his chances with a bogey on 15 to fall to 1-under.
Everyone else’s chaos became Rahm’s calm — on his magical turf.
“Man, I got it done in a fashion that apparently can only happen to me at Torrey
Pines,’’ Rahm said. “It’s hard to believe this story can end up so good. It almost feels like it’s a movie that’s about to end and I’m going to wake up soon.’’