The fantastic US OPEN made by Jon Rahm ended with the golf player carrying his 3 month old son while he collected the US Open trophy. His performance in the gole course was absolutely perfect, wiping the rest of the players.
The journey of Rahm flash with a bending 25 foot birdie putt made on the 17th hole, chasing to Louis Oosthuizen that was frontend in the classification. Then, he buried a birdie putt from 18 feet on the final hole for a 4 under 67 and a with a “one-shot” victory.
Jon Rahm Rodríguez, 26 years old, is the first spanish that wins the US Open, a feat that even the legendary Severiano Ballesteros not achieved in his days, someone whom Rahm wanted to refer to with a few words of remembrance and dedication.
In a second round filled with double bogeys by so many contenders and a shocking collapse of defending champion Bryson DeChambeau, Oosthuizen was the last to fall. With a return shot, Oosthuizen drove into the canyon to the left of 17th fairway for a bogey that left him two shots behind, then missed the fairway at par 5 of 18, preventing him from going to the green to see the eagle. to force a tiebreaker.
Finally, he settled for a birdie and a 71. It was his second consecutive runner-up in a major and his sixth silver medal since winning the 2010 Open Championship at St. Andrews.
Only two weeks ago, Rahm was on the cusp of another big win. He had a six-shot lead at the Memorial after 54 holes, only to be notified as he walked off the 18th green at Muirfield Village that he had a positive COVID-19 test and had to withdraw.
Worse yet, his parents had flown in from Spain to see their new grandson, and Rahm was in self-isolation and couldn’t be there for a special moment.
Sunday made up for it. His parents were at Torrey Pines to witness a world-class performance capped off by one of the great finishes in U.S. Open history.
“It had to happen in a beautiful setting like this,” Rahm said. “Three generations of Rahms on this green. One of them doesn’t know what’s going on.”
For so much of the back nine, it was utter chaos with blunders that can define a U.S. Open.
DeChambeau, trying to become only the fourth player since World War II to win back-to-back in the U.S. Open, took the lead with an 8-iron that stopped inches away from a hole-in-one on the par-3 eighth. He had gone 30 consecutive holes without a bogey.
And then his lack of accuracy off the tee cost him. A bogey on No. 11. A bogey from deep rough on No. 12. And then on the par-5 13th, DeChambeau went from deep rough to deep rough to bunker, blasting out of the sand over the green next to a beer box, making double bogey.
He took a quadruple-bogey 8 on the 17th hole with a shot in the canyon and a shank. He shot 44 on the back nine for a 77.
“I didn’t get off the rails at all. It’s golf,” DeChambeau said. “I’ve had plenty of times where I hit it way worse than today and I won. It’s just one of those things where I didn’t have the right breaks happen at the right time.”
Mackenzie Hughes, one shot behind going to the back nine, had his tee shot on the par-3 11th bounce off a cart path and get stuck in a tree, leading to a double bogey that ended his chances. Former PGA Championship winner Collin Morikawa chopped his way down the 13th for double bogey that took him from one shot behind to out of the mix.
Rory McIlroy wasn’t immune, either. With a chance to end his seven-year drought in the majors, McIlroy made a careless three-putt for bogey on the 11th when he was one shot behind, and then caught a bad lie in the bunker that led to double bogey on No. 12.
Of the contenders, Rahm was the only player who didn’t drop a shot on the back nine.
Harris English finished with two birdies for a 68 to finish at 3-under 281, giving him third place.
Brooks Koepka got within one shot of the lead — it was so close that 10 players were separated by one shot during one point in the final round — until he made a pair of bogeys coming in for a 69. He tied for fourth with Morikawa (70) and Guido Migliozzi, who shot 68 in his major debut.
Rahm becomes the second player this year to capture his first major, joining with Hideki Matsuyama at the Masters.
What a perfect time, a first-time dad winning on Father’s Day.
What a perfect place — La Jolla, which reminds him of his home in the Basque region of Spain, the site of his first PGA TOUR victory, where he proposed to his wife.
“I’m a big believer in karma, and after what happened a couple weeks ago, I stayed really positive knowing good things were coming,” Rahm said. “I didn’t know what it was going to be, but I knew we were coming to a special place.
“I just felt like the stars were aligning, and I knew my best golf was to come.”
He earned 600 FedExCup points and moved up 17 spots to No. 2 in the FedExCup standings.
Rahm finished at 5-under 278 for his sixth PGA TOUR victory. The first one was at Torrey Pines four years ago when he holed a 50-foot eagle putt on the 18th.