He needed a big comeback, one of those rounds of golf that he does from time to time. But he stopped halfway. Jon Rahm wanted, but couldn’t, at least not as much as he would have liked, to row a little more and get closer to leading the Acciona Open of Spain at Villa de Madrid Country Club. The world number three delivered a round four shots under par this Saturday, a total of -7, nine behind the Frenchman Matthieu Pavon, who finished second just behind Rahm last year. Today he is in the lead at -16, compared to -14 for England’s Nathan Kimsey.
In this 2022 edition, Rahm destroyed the field with a total score of -25, the lowest in the history of the championship. In 2023 it will be impossible to get anywhere close to that mark and, barring a strange alignment of the stars, they will be unable to retain the title, win their fourth crown and break the tie that has them now connects with Severiano Ballesteros as three-time national champion. It is the rawness and at the same time the magic of this sport that can humiliate the great stars and elevate the most humble. Examples include the two best-placed Spaniards, Alfredo García-Heredia with -12 and Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño with -11. The first, a 41-year-old from Gijón, was sixth in the last edition with a final lap of -7 and will fight for his first victory on the European circuit this Sunday. His case is strange: the former world amateur champion admits that he doesn’t like watching golf on TV and that he didn’t even follow the Ryder Cup, but sees it just as his job and his passions are other. Especially fishing, without which, as he says, he would have become “golf crazy,” and playing football with the veterans of Sporting de Gijón, the club of which he is a fan. He is also a friend of Fernando Alonso, whom he has followed in some races. And he played a major role in the strange history of this Open when he cut his hand on a door to the course’s restrooms on the 14th hole on Thursday, the first day. The doctors treated him and he fought back as best he could with a bandage until the end.
One shot behind him is Fernández-Castaño, who is aiming for his eighth title on the European circuit this Friday at the age of 43, ten seasons after his last bingo, the BMW Masters in 2013. Two consecutive rounds of -5 have him up brought back a forgotten sidewalk. After a stint in the United States, the Madrid native presented a golf clothing line at the tournament and jumped onto the big screen with a weekly show on YouTube called “Golf Without Labels,” which he co-hosts with Álex Larrazábal, Pablo’s brother.
For Rahm it was a day of testing after the slap in the face the day before, a day that finished one over par and with a gap in the putt record, a strange thing because there was no way to get in: short, long, wide , with a tie… nothing. And in the first round on Saturday there was another putt on hole 1 to measure the patient’s golf game and emotional recovery. Rahm holed out to 1.2 meters and made a hopeful birdie to uncork the round. But… the rawness of golf, remember. On his immediate shot, he missed the fairway to the left of hole 2, hit it back into the ring, and left a long putt that missed this time. The bogeyman stopped the surge of energy that had allowed him to take off. The obstacles would happen on the track without giving him a break. Some would be saved, others would be punished. He emerged unscathed after failing again from the tee on the 4th, also on the left side and with a tree in his face, although the par-5 conditions allowed him to make birdie with a good recovery. He also sweated to keep the score at 5, again with a detour in the same direction from the starting box. On the 7th he hit the green with his second shot, but a painful fall brought back bad memories of the previous day. And although he added another birdie on the 8th, he finished the first part of the Madrid tour feeling like he needed another gear.
A dart to the flag on the 10th increased his birdie collection and made it clear that he had put in a lot of work when the Basque put the ball straight into the fairway and with the bomber power that he shows. However, it happened too often that he walked along the sides of the holes. On the 14th, previously his favorite spot, misfortune struck: he stepped into the rough on the right, his second shot tripped over a few branches, his third shot came up short without even hitting the green, and his fourth shot left him out a 12-foot, 3.7-meter putt that he missed. On the 488-meter par 5, where he celebrated nine birdies and four eagles in 13 consecutive rounds, he made par on Friday and bogey this Saturday. The garden had become a vine. “You have to take risks. I did it because I had nothing to lose, but I didn’t think that tree would come into play,” he later lamented.
It was a frantic round with interruptions just when I needed to find rhythm and regularity. A powerful start down the middle allowed Rahm to call for birdie at 15, he wheezed at 16 as he saved par after losing the fairway again, and at 18 he lowered the blind after discounting another shot had when he was on the edge of the green. with the starting cannon shot. A -7 is still not enough to realize the dream of a fourth Spanish Open. “I hope the managers don’t let me down too much and we’ll see what we can do. “I’m just telling the public that I hope the best is yet to come,” Rahm signed off before resuming his laudable habit of signing hats, balls and polo shirts for a long line of children. You don’t just see a champion on the pitch.
Results of the third day of the Acciona Open of Spain.
Games and departure times this Sunday.
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