Jon Rham: “Being Illustrious from Bizkaia helps my wife and children know how important it is for me to be from here”

Jon Rahm (Barrika, 1994) received this morning at the Palacio Foral the award that designates him Illustrious of Bizkaia, a recognition that the Diputación had not granted for six years. Moved, the golfer was proud of having been “lucky enough to represent the Basque Country and Bizkaia in the world of golf, to explain our history,” although he recalled that “for many years they believed that he was from Álava” because of the license with which he played.

Rahm explained that this distinction will serve to make his family understand, “a little more, who is his little father, who is his husband, how important it is for me to be from here.” He did not want to forget the help he has always received from Gonzaga Escauriaza, president of the Spanish Golf Federation: «For what you have done for me and continue to do. And if I can help, I will try to help you. He also thanked his “mistress, my grandma and my brother, because if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be here.”

solemn and close

Before starting his little speech, he turned to his family and said: “Mama, don’t cry!” He also admitted that it was going to “cost more than usual” to express himself about the recognition received. “What a day we have been, first in Ibaigane and now coming here… the heart does not give for more,” Rahm was honest. He was serious but close, dressed in a jacket on which he had an Athletic badge pinned to him. He dismissed the act with a greeting in Basque: “Maite zaituztet, eskerrik asko”.

After the formal act, Rahm explained that he could not stay to watch Athletic against Sestao on Tuesday because he had to return to the United States, where his wife and two children have stayed. In addition to collecting the regional distinction, the golfer’s stay in Bizkaia is due to the fact that tomorrow he will attend the wedding of his brother Eriz.

The deputy general, Unai Rementeria, said of Rahm that he is “a man with deep roots in his land, always proud of his people and his territory. Dreams have to be dreamed, but above all you have to work on them.” Rementería congratulated the Rahm family present in the regional hall, his mother Ángela, his father Edorta, his brother Eriz and his grandmother Miren.