The best way to sum up a day on which nothing seemed to be working for Rahm is that he has kept his chances of victory alive. Such is the quality of the Spaniard that he was able to steal some shots from the Black Course at Club de Campo Real Madrid without managing to get out of third gear.
Difficulty getting the ball into the hole prevented the Barrika native from mounting an assault on the leader. While yesterday it was the long putts that frustrated him, because he had no time to practise on the course in Madrid, today he had his speed dialled in but as many as four putts of under 6 feet failed to find the bottom of the cup. “I can’t believe what that ball just did. So unlucky! Not a great start…”, he said to his caddie, oddly in Spanish rather than English.
That putt on the 12th (his third hole of the day) was a sign of things to come. He is not short on confidence because he pulled out a wedge where any mere mortal would have grabbed a putter without a second thought. He was on the fringe, 12 feet from the hole and chipping for a birdie. The ball pulled up short and it proved to be a costly mistake; he would miss the 3-foot par putt and the resulting frustration seemed to dog him for the rest of the round.
On each of the 12th, 18th, 2nd and 6th holes, Rahm saw a short putt slide by its target. It’s also true, though, that he was not getting the rub of the green, as he angrily declared, in not so many words on hole 2: “I’m paying for every single mistake!”. There are days when errant shots go unpunished, but this was not one of them for the Basque. Four errors, four bogies.
You may ask yourself, then, how he managed to finish under par. The first reason is because he is an extraordinary golfer, and the second is that he eats the three par 5s at Club de Campo for breakfast. This morning was no different. An eagle and two birdies on the long holes mean he is well in the mix for the weekend. 69 shots, two under par, where most of the field would be looking at something in the mid-seventies. Such is the greatness of the man.
Rahm is right where he wants to be as Saturday looms. He warned on Wednesday, having just flown in from America, that nobody should expect too much of him, but if he gets into the top ten for the weekend, then they can. We’ll take him on his word.
