His grandfather, Carlos Celles, went on to win the Spanish Open in 1945. His father, with the same name, also had a professional career. He played several Opens in France and England and made a living teaching. “I was born between golf clubs. In my mother’s gut I heard about golf ”, jokes the Basque, who had no luck.
“I became an applicant, which was a category that existed befores. Then I became a professional and played on national circuits. In three tournaments I realized that I couldn’t play golf, I had no results and I couldn’t finance it ”. Celles was 26 years old and did not succeed as a player. Yes as a coach.
A 14-year-old boy said the following to him one day in a car, returning from a tournament: “Edu, I’m going to be the best in the world.” That beardless man at that time is called Jon and his last name is Rahm. It is number 1 on the planet. No sooner said than done. “As a teacher, I am proud to have been with Jon from the beginning and to be able to say that I helped him to train,” explains Celles, a vacationer from Andrín (Llanes) for twenty years and a lover of Asturias, “you don’t know what you have …” .
At the Celles family golf school, which bears his name, 300 students pass each year. Rahm arrived one day with his mother, Angela. “I also taught her and brought the boy to me. I did some ball driving tests and we started to work. I would be lying if I said that I already realized that it would be what it is today, there were better kids. Yes, I was surprised by his ‘putt’ (shot to roll the ball and put it in the hole). Many kids are bored and want to hit him hard. Not Jon ”.
Celles honed Rahm’s swing, a style the golfer maintains today. “It had a very broad movement and little by little we were transforming it. There is a standard one, which involves having the hand turned to the left. I sent it to the right, although people did not understand it. In a national scoring he won with that swing and he still has it ”, analyzes Celles, who remembers several anecdotes with the Basque player.
“The moment of its takeoff was in a junior Spanish championship in Sancti Petri (Cádiz). I remember it well because the van we were in broke down and it took us about 18 hours to get there. We came back with three glasses. There I saw that it was very very different. The attitude in training, his concentration … Severiano (Ballesteros) said that even when he went to the movies he thought about golf. Jon was already at a similar time. To get to the top, you have to have breakfast, lunch and dinner with golf in mind ”.
Years later, Celles saw another key moment in Rahm’s career. “I went with him to the Phoenix Open. Jon played as a guest. Before the tournament I had a conversation with his father: ‘Like your son, there are a thousand kids here, huh’. If it was even Tiger Woods! I don’t even remember how Jon turned out, but after the tournament I changed my mind ”. Today and now, teacher and student communicate remotely. “We talk a lot and I send him video corrections. Jon’s trainers are now biomechanics, helping him to move his body better. About golf, there is little to teach you. He is at his best and there is a ‘Rahm phenomenon’ for a long time ‘”, says Celles, who before his student recovered the number 1 in the British Open warned:“ He is going to fight, with the swing he has… ”.
Rahm is number 1 again
Spaniard Jon Rahm finished yesterday in a shared third position at the British Open, which was played at the Royal St George’s GC (Sandwich, Kent). Rahm finished with a last card with 66 strokes (four under par), for a total of 269 (-11), four strokes behind the winner, the American Collin Morikawa. The Basque recovers the world number 1 lost the previous Sunday and that until this tournament had the North American Dustin Johnson. To regain top position, Rahm had to finish in the top fifteen and ahead of Johnson, which he did, as the American finished in a shared eighth place, with a total of 273 shots. Barrika’s first rose to number 1 in July 2020.
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