It was puncturing the ball in the tee of hole 1, yesterday on the first day of the Acciona Open of Spain at the Villa de Madrid Country Club, and everything returned to its place. Suddenly the after-effects of the fever and flu that made him miss the LIV team final last weekend disappeared; He forgot about the nerves due to the birth three days ago of his third child, the first girl, Alaia; And left behind was the fatigue of the nights sleeping on the hospital bench and the flight from Arizona to Spain with just enough time to go out to compete without hardly any training. With the ball in play, it was already Jon Rahm with one goal ahead of him. And that’s another story.
The Basque golfer had a wonderful round of three strokes under par despite the rust that he himself expected in his game, fifth in the general classification of the Open, like Adri Arnaus, three shots behind the leader, Ángel Hidalgo from Marbella. “Even if I had arrived on Sunday and in good shape I would have signed this result,” explained Rahm after a day marked by strong winds in Madrid. “The course was very difficult, and starting up there is a great result. It was almost a good thing for me that there was that wind because if you are not completely comfortable with the swing“It is good not to think and use the wind to help you.”
The sensations had been “horrible” the day before on the practice field, the brief training that Rahm was able to allow himself, in addition to some time in the gym, before hugging the hotel bed and falling exhausted. But the Country Club is familiar land, where he has won two of the three Open crowns he has won, and acclimatization was easier. “It is a field that I know and it is all familiar to me, it is not difficult for me to adapt. It’s warming up. Once you arrive at tee 1 changes things, there is a level of intensity and muscle memory that makes it easier. I’m entering the lap and I don’t think about it anymore,” commented the Spaniard.
Rahm charged with a bogey on the 3rd hole, a par three in which he missed a putt meter and a half, a blow that revealed the lack of prior warm-up in the greens. He made up ground at the next stop, the par-five 4th, when he even brushed the eagle. The lap went up and down: a good escape from the rough at 6, a trip at 7, a putt for birdie on the 8, then four pairs in a row, another putt who entered softly, almost crying, to birdie in the 13th… The end of the round was also full of curves. In the 16th, his ball landed next to a tree in the fairway, which condemned him to come up short on the shot to the green and leave the trap with a bogey. And on the 17th and 18th, two birdies of fable, the first with a putt long on the par three and the second with two great approaches to the flag. And now? “Being in the top 10 for the weekend and then demand a little more from myself,” he prescribed.
Rahm will leave this Friday at 9.10, an early time that last night only allowed him to watch the first half of Ahtletic against Roma before going to rest. The Basque aspires to the top of a table led by Ángel Hidalgo. “But what field is he playing? “Is there no wind where he plays?” Rahm was surprised about the return of his colleague. Hidalgo, all sincerity and naturalness, explained it like this: “The day has come. This morning at breakfast I would have signed the par of the field, and I am the leader. It’s weird as hell, but there are three days left and there are a lot of brave bulls behind, especially one.”
A LIV tournament in Madrid?
The waters in world golf continue to go downhill. While the major circuits and LIV negotiate peace, the Saudi League moves its chips. Greg Norman, his CEO, has traveled to Madrid to negotiate the possible incorporation of the capital to the list of venues that host a LIV tournament each season. Spain already has a representative, the Andalusian field of Valderrama, which has signed a contract for five editions but without the obligation for them to be consecutive. This is where Madrid can come in and the option of alternating with Valderrama.
