Jon Rahm was absolutely, positively supposed to prevail and win the Mexico Open on Sunday.
He did but it wasn’t easy, it was tougher than expected as he had to fight off challenges from all sorts of lowly-ranked contenders.
The world’s No. 2 and reigning U.S. Open champion led by two shots heading into the final 18 holes at Vidanta. World No. 104 Cameron Champ and No. 208 Kurt Kitayama were supposed to simply be in the supporting cast but they put up a good challenge before each made costly errors — Champ on the front, Kitayama on the back.
Rahm, who hadn’t won since last year’s U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, doesn’t have the best record as a closer — he has held five 54-hole leads before Sunday and only managed to win once — not a great trend.
Rahm was cautious all day. He started with five straight pars then got himself into the lead at the turn with birdies at six and seven to get to 17-under. Kitayama stayed in touch, one back but Champ did himself in with a drive at the par four eighth that found the water hazard right of the fairway and he’d eventually suffer a triple-bogey eight to all but take himself out of it.
Up ahead, Tony Finau and Brandon Wu were making big runs. By the time they finished, well before Rahm, each shot a course-record 63 to post 16-under.
It should have been an easier afternoon for Rahm but it wasn’t. Distance control with his irons and discomfort with the speed of the greens were bothering him. A bogey at 10 dropped him back into a tie with Kitayama but things turns for the Spaniard at the par five 14th. He made birdie and Kitayama committed the mortal sin of making bogey on a par five late on Sunday.
Rahm got back to 17-under, ground out four pars and won by a shot over Kitayama, Wu and Finau.
Rahm was supposed to win big, he didn’t but as most will say, a “W” is a “W”.
“I don’t look at bets (betting lines). I like to think every time I tee it up I can win,” Rahm said afterward. “It was a pretty stressful weekend. But I got it done at the end.”
Rahm went wire-to-wire. He shared the Thursday lead with Kitayama as both shot 64s then he took the solo lead with 66 on Friday then shot 68 on Saturday for a two-shot lead after 54.
“I knew I was improving. I knew I was seeing results and this week has proven that,” Rahm said after struggling to a closing 69. “I think that Sunday with Tiger (Woods) at Augusta gave me quite a bit of confidence. I was a little bit technical in my approach. I’m a feel player and that Sunday I told myself just go out there and hit the golf ball, make shots, see the ball flight and execute and I shot a three-under without having my best stuff on a tough day.
“So I applied the same thing this week, minimal technical thoughts and just visualizing ball flight of the shot and getting back to my true self and I truly saw the difference. My iron game was really, really solid, especially into the wind. Sometimes we deviate from our path but this time we didn’t and I’m happy to get my first win and get back up there in the FedExCup standings and hopefully get my second one soon.”
4 Comments
baxter cepeda
Nice for the worlds number 2 to have a pga tour junior varsity tournament like this one to regain his confidence.
But let’s be real on Rahm, this performance wasn’t enough to win the event if there were more than 2 players in the top 40; as was the case in Puerto Vallarta.
Champ broke my heart on 8. The bad drive was bad enough but he was able to chip out, advance the ball a bit, but still made triple.
Kitayama had a painstaking Sunday; just couldn’t make that one darn putt he needed. He just barely missed a few bombs. That being said He hits such wayward drives I couldn’t understand how he kept staying in contention.
Happy for Tony getting back to doing what he does best, backdooring or Rorying a second place finish.
I like Wu. He has a cool personality to go with that cool name which could be like the next Kooch or Gooch.
“Wuuu!”
briggzee
It wasn’t so much Rahm’s win that intrigued me but the interview after where he went on about being Spanish and winning in a Spanish speaking country. Wonder what the press would do if Justin Thomas or others went on about being white, winning in the US, an English speaking country after one of their many victories. Never heard a word from the press about this. When Thomas called himself a sensitive word the reporters went freaking nuts and tried to bring him down big time, maybe they should give Jon Rahm the same treatment for what would appear in their standards to be a racist statement.
baxter cepeda
It’s a non issue because most people exercise common sense. Mexicans speak Spanish. Rahm speaks Spanish. He is able to do more grow the game through press in Spanish speaking countries. And he takes that role seriously. That’s all he is saying. There is literally nothing wrong with that.
JTs situation, a guy whom I’ve called ‘my golfer’ while being quite critical of rahm, was really insensitive at Kapalua and he knew it as soon as it was pointed out to him.
Tom Edrington
My sister always reminds me that players with young children might not be getting as much sleep as they’d normally like!!