If Jon Rahm wins this Sunday at the LIV Golf Australia, he will always be remembered for the relief he ‘manufactured’ on the 18th and his spectacular eagle from 60 metres to tie with Bryson DeChambeau after the third round. The look on Bryson’s face, absolutely astonished to see his great rival for the victory go from being dead to the left of the hole, surrounded by trees and without a shot, to having his ball in the best possible place to approach that pin position, right on the left side of the fairway, will also be remembered.
Rahm’s relief and DeChambeau’s expression immediately sparked their own debate among fans. Is the relief fair? Did Jon do the right thing? Did the referees do the right thing? What could have gone wrong there, if anything, for a player who hit a very bad shot to end up in such an ideal situation?
Well, the one who is least to blame for everything is, precisely, Jon Rahm. On the contrary, the man from Barrika has shown an extraordinary knowledge of the rules and has behaved with the necessary coolness to take advantage of the situation. Not only is what the Spanish golfer did legitimate, but it is also tremendously intelligent.
Rahm obra un milagro para aguantar la embestida de DeChambeau
Let’s review what happened. The 18th hole is a short par 4 where players hit the driver full throttle to try to leave it as close to the green as possible. DeChambeau, for example, with a perfect drive, had it 50 metres from the hole. Jon also went full throttle from the tee, but missed the shot to the left (it happened to him several times today) and ended up missing the target about 30 metres to the left. Additionally, he was lucky that his ball bounced twice on the buggy path and still made more distance.
His ball ended up on the 10th tee, incredibly in the same spot as yesterday, so he already knew exactly what to do. Being surrounded by trees, the only natural shot to try to get it to the green, or at least the green bunker, is low. However, he can’t make that shot because in the line to the flag he has the grandstand on the left of the 18th. For this reason, he claims relief for immovable obstruction and the referee grants it to him. That’s what the referee has to do. DeChambeau, at first, was amazed, but then understood that Jon was just perfectly interpreting the rules.
“At first I was shocked, of course. I didn’t know that could happen, so that was the shock: ‘how? can you do that?’. I didn’t know. I also didn’t know if it was ‘valid’ there, so I was surprised. That was all. Then I thought: ‘well, I’ve done worse things too’, admitted the American sportingly.
So, has something gone wrong here or not? Well, yes. What has failed is the course setup. It’s a mistake to place the grandstand on that left side (just like the right side), as being a short par 4 where they are going to hit the driver full throttle, it can perfectly happen that a bad shot ends up being obstructed by the grandstand, so the player has to receive relief. It’s an unfair course setup that benefits a bad shot on a hole that is also decisive, as it’s none other than the last one. A flagrant setup error perfectly exploited by Rahm through wisdom and, also, a dose of luck.
In this regard, Jon explained that when he saw the ball come out, he was very calm because he already knew he was going to be able to get relief. “The most impressive thing I’ve done all week is hit twice so far to the left, hit the path twice and end up twice on the 10th tee. The odds of that are quite low. Then, luckily, we have relief for TIO (temporary interference/obstruction), obviously I already knew it from yesterday, so I didn’t worry too much, knowing where I was going to drop. It was a very good angle to that flag. In fact, it was practically the best possible place for any flag from that distance. It was a very good number: 62 metres against the wind, trying to bounce it about six or seven metres short. Obviously, I executed it quite well and the rest is what you all saw. I didn’t expect to hole it, I expected to leave it close, but in the end, I hit the jackpot with that,” he explains.
It’s true that Jon’s ball was a bit lively, although with enough brake to probably have left a more than reasonable birdie option. Tomorrow we’ll see if Jon’s luck today in Adelaide is the luck of the champion. He also had some fortune on the 15th, when he and DeChambeau missed similarly to the left and his ball ended up perfect and Bryson’s in a footprint. In any case, luck has to be taken advantage of and, of course, that’s what Jon has done with that spectacular finish of five under in five holes. Because in the end, no matter how many rules and poor course setup there are on this 18th hole, the one who holed it for eagle from 60 metres is Rahm.
