There is no stopping Jon Rahm | Sports

Unstoppable Jon Rahm. There is no one to stop the Basque golfer today, winner this Sunday of the American Express in La Quinta (California) with 27 shots under par, one ahead of the American Davis Thompson and two over Xander Schauffele and Chris Kirk. It is the fourth title for the Spaniard in the last six tournaments he has played (he also won the Spanish Open, the DP World Tour and the Sentry Tournament of Champions) and his second victory in two rounds this year on the American circuit. Today, the fittest golfer in the world, a cyclone at the start of the season in which he has set himself the challenge of returning to the top of his sport.

Rahm is in Tiger mode, a devourer. Two weeks ago he conquered the Sentry, the tournament of champions, with a impressive comeback of up to nine strokes in the last round against Collin Morikawa, a round in which he signed 10 strokes under par to finish the tournament with -27. The same figure with which he was crowned this Sunday at the American Express. That is to say, in only two stops on the calendar on the PGA Tour, the Barrika player accumulates a -54. This time the glory did not come starting from behind like a freight train, but resisting the push of Thompson and a good handful of golfers who accelerated in the fourth round. None with the regularity and mettle of Rahm, who in the four days of competition has only carried three bogeys: Thursday at hole 10, Saturday at hole 17 with three putts and this Sunday in the 13th with a missed close blow. In return, a eagle y 28 birdies to tie his ninth career victory on the American circuit at age 28. The same number of titles that he achieved in the tour his American idol Seve Ballesteros.

The bingo in the American Express increases a few tenths more its great percentage of victories with respect to the total number of qualifying tournaments for the world ranking he has played: 18 wins in 155 championships, 11.6% of successes. Only the myth of Tiger Woods exceeds the Spanish, with 22% (reduced in recent years of greater drought due to injuries). In the third step, after the Basque, appears the number one in the world ranking, Rory McIlroy, with 8.3%.

Beyond the numbers, Rahm feels like the best in the world today. At La Quinta he started the final round tied with Thompson at -23, but soon hit the gas. Two birdies in the first two holes they were a blow on the table to show who was in charge. From that devastating beginning, several options were left along the way to discount more blows with putts missed by a nail, until breathing with the birdies of 9 and 11. Thompson did not slacken and the bogey of the Spaniard in the 13th he returned to leave the account equalized (-26) with five holes ahead. The reward was already being played for sudden death and in that trance Rahm sharpened his winning instinct to hunt a birdie in the par five of the 16, with his ball saving the precipice to the left of the green after the second hit. He would no longer let go of the prey.

This new laurel elevates Rahm to first place in the FedEx Cup, the list of the best on the American circuit this course, and allows him to surpass Cameron Smith, emigrated to the Saudi league, in the third step of the world ranking, after McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler. “They don’t take me out on television anymore because I’m not American, but if I win they will have no choice but to take me out,” the Basque commented last Wednesday before the tournament. No sooner said than done.

Final classification of the American Express.

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