Jon Rahm, three trees and 'goodbye' to the Spanish Open
There was no miracle on the day of the movement at the Acciona Open in Spain and we will have to wait for something extraordinary, almost biblical, so that Jon Rahm can lift his fourth trophy in Madrid.
The Spaniard finished the day with 67 strokes (-4), to place himself at -7, nine behind the tournament leader, the Frenchman Matthieu Pavon (-16), who continues to resist at the Villa de Madrid Country Club with a firm step.. Pavon will start on Sunday with a two-stroke lead over Englishman Nathan Kimsey. The Frenchman, son of a footballer who played for Betis, will seek his first victory in the DP World Tour.
Rahm cannot be blamed for not having tried by all means: the promising initial birdie left the thousands of spectators with honey on their lips. On Saturday, Barrika's player was not correct from tee to green, but his putter worked much better and it was reflected in his result of 67 strokes.. One of the negative points of his day was the painful bogey on what had been his talisman hole until now, the par 5 14th hole.. He had never had a score worse than eagle or birdie on this hole in his entire career.. “I went all out because I had nothing to lose and it didn't turn out well. I didn't know that tree could come into play,” Jon explained when finishing. He hit three trees in a row and still had a good par option, which he couldn't convert.
Alfredo García Heredia (-12) has become the best Spaniard of the tournament. The Asturian signed a round with seven birdies and four bogeys that leave him with options to fight for the victory and will start in the penultimate game of the day at 12.54 along with the French Mike Lorenzo Vera and Romain Langasque who, like him, finished with -12. Alfredo will start four shots behind the leader, although beyond the goal of victory, Alfredo fights a tense battle to finish among the best 116 of the year and retain the DP World Tour card for next season. At the moment, García Heredia is in 134th place in the Race to Dubai. A place in the top five of the tournament on Sunday could help the Gijon native secure another year in the European elite.. “I'm happy, because I saved the day after not being so comfortable on the field and having missed shots in places that are not ideal.”. I finished birdie-birdie, and that allows me to be up there,” García Heredia responded, before assessing his chances of victory: “This year I come out with more chances of victory than last year. But I sign the return I made then (64). I don't know if it would be enough for me to win, but I'm sure it would be enough for me to go home happy at least.. It will be very nice to play again in the last games,” he concluded.
Beyond Alfredo and Rahm, there is a bunch of Spanish players who will try to save the Spanish honor that has been winning without pause in the tournament since 2018. They could have a chance to make history on Sunday Gonzalo Fernández Castaño, seventh with -11 and Alejandro del Rey, Pablo Larrazábal and Adrián Otaegui, who with -9 and seven hits from the French player will try everything to try to achieve victory.
Meanwhile, Rahm continues to resist giving up and in his words after the day, he slipped in “it's very difficult, but…”. The thousands of fans who are going to pack the course on Sunday cling to that 'but', the fight goes beyond golf and even offends common sense, looking at the classification, where Matthieu Pavon has a nine-stroke advantage and in between there are 33 players with better options than the winner of the Augusta Masters to win the tournament. But with 'Rahmbo' you never know.