Rahm Goes Up, Down, Then Wins It All In Dubai Drama

Five feet for $5,000,000 — one million a foot.

That’s what Jon Rahm was looking at late Sunday afternoon in Dubai — The Race on the line, the tournament on the line, everything on the line with one of those oh-so-nerve-fraying short putts between him and a huge double-dip victory.

What was at one-time a six-shot lead for the talent-rich Spaniard, had totally evaporated as he stood over that short one for birdie, a 68 and a winning 19-under par total score.  Tommy Fleetwood was in at 18-under after his birdie-birdie finish and a 65 that had him at 18-under.  Tommy was watching anxiously as Rahm lined up that winning putt.  Rahm got there with a perfect 330-yard drive at the closing par five on the Earth course, with just a four-iron in from 200 yards out.  “The wind didn’t get it,” Rahm recounted, and his ball settled into a large greenside bunker, well right of the hole.

Off a downhill lie with the green running away from him and at least 80 feet to the hole, Rahm hit what he called “an outstanding bunker shot” and there he was with just that five-footer for birdie with everything on the line.  He started it on line but it began to turn left as it got to the hole, then slipped in the left edge.

“Hard to believe, hard to believe,” Rahm said as he walked off as the No. 1 player in Europe for 2019 and will move up to No. 3 in the world when the rankings come out this week.

The day started out looking like a Rahm Rampage.  Five birdies over his first seven holes was a dream start and he was blowing away playing partner Mike Lorenzo Vera, Fleetwood and Rory McIlroy.

But as it turned out, by the time he reached the 18th tee, all six shots of that lead vanished.

“It’s golf,” Rahm said, putting it in words everyone who has played the game can understand.  Yes, this was a day when what looked like an easy victory became a desperate grind and Rahm was able to grind it out, looking determined even when things were going against him.  Back-t0-back bogeys at eight and nine set the stage for a back nine run by Fleetwood and a determined effort by Vera, who was hoping to pull off a major upset after holding the lead or a share of it for the first 54-holes.

But there would be no victory for David — too many Goliaths showed up.

After two good rounds and a sorry one, McIlroy simply couldn’t muster any magic over the final 18 — he was never a factor — leaving it to Fleetwood and Vera to put the back-nine pressure on Rahm.  It was Fleetwood who applied the bulk of it.  After birdies at 12, 14 and 15, he hit a sweet shot into the difficult, 200-yard par three 17th.  He made a sensational birdie putt from 20 feet to get to 17-under then on the 18th, he was pin high, left of the green and the creek that guards it in two and pitched a beauty to three feet for a closing birdie and an 18-under finish.

Behind him, Rahm knew what he needed.  “Go 4-3-4, you win,” Rahm told himself.  He got the four at the 16th then a par at 17 after his tee shot left him inside 20 feet for an easy two-putt.  Then came the big drive at 18, the four-iron that went too far right, the great bunker shot then that cash-winning five-footer.

Fleetwood, after shooting 65, simply smiled as Rahm buried the winning birdie putt.  “Yeah, I feel fine,” Fleetwood said as Rahm headed for the scoring room.   “Couldn’t have done much more, really. You know, some of the putts they hit, some of the shots they hit coming down the stretch, it started looking like I could get back in it or might have a chance.  Proud, really, of the way I played the last few holes. Proud of the end of the season, and these two weeks make the season just seem in a different light than it did the weeks before we started.  Fair play to Jon. That’s a cracking birdie down the last when you have to make it. I’m absolutely fine.”

For his efforts, Fleetwood was solo second and solo second in the final Race To Dubai standings.

As for Rahm, it was a day to remember.  He became the first Spaniard since Seve Ballesteros (1991) to win the Race To Dubai.  “Oh man — I didn’t even think about that,” Rahm said.  “I’m happy about it.  It’s been a great year.  It’s really so hard to believe that some of the greatest champions in European golf and Spanish golf haven’t been able to accomplish what I have in just three years,” he said. “That’s what I can’t really put my mind into.”

He’ll have plenty of time to think about that.  He took six weeks off coming into the championship and admitted that much time off was “a risk.”

But at the end of the day, the end of a long season, he was the last man standing.

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