Was this the best version of Jon Rahm this year? Perhaps alongside the first round in Jeddah, we were seeing Rahm’s best holes of the year. The other day he acknowledged that the course made him feel at home and that his game was adapting wonderfully. Fine from the tee, solid with the irons and only missing one green in regulation. Everything was going smoothly for the Barrika native in this first round of the LIV Golf being held in Hong Kong for the first time.
Rahm co-led the tournament after six flawless birdies. Everything changed when he reached the 18th hole, his penultimate flag of the day. There the drama and the height of bad luck appeared. First a mistake, one of the few mistakes Jon has made today from the tee. The starting ball closed excessively and ended up in the area of the trees on the left. He was left with a ball that he could only try to get back on the street with a short swing due to an ivy that marks the boundaries of the field. Here came the evil eye stroke. Between the tree area where the ball rested and the street there would be about 20 meters and halfway a paved path. Jon hits the ball a little further back, it doesn’t fly enough and with such bad luck that the ball hits the edge of the path, bounces back with quite a force and stays stuck to the fence. Unplayable. Jon has to drop and repeat the shot to get it on the street. Now he can execute the shot normally and gets it on the street where he will hit his fifth shot on a hole that is par four. Good shot from 140 meters but he doesn’t manage to hole the four-meter putt he had. Triple bogey to the backpack. Rahm couldn’t believe it and Adam was doing psychological containment work. Cool head and keep going. There’s a lot of tournament left.
Until that moment Rahm was the driver of the Sheung Shui bus, the town where the tournament is being held. Eleven players were tied for the lead (-6) with three holes left and with another Spaniard in the equation Eugenio López Chacarra. Rahm managed to calm the spirits and closed with two consecutive pars for a total of three under par and that place him within the top 20. Playing as he has done today he will have options to lift his first individual trophy in the LIV.
Chacarra smiles. How much Eugenio needed a round like today’s! In recent weeks, the Madrid player himself admitted to going through a bad time and was working to recover his best version as soon as possible. The results were not accompanying and the start of the season was beginning to get uphill. This is how the way back begins. Great round of six under par that place him just one stroke from the lead and with two days ahead to try to fight for his second title in the LIV. We must not forget that Chacarra is the only Spaniard who has so far tasted the sweetness of victory in the Saudi circuit. Whether he fights for the final victory or not, rounds like today’s are oxygen in the vein for the Spaniard.
The tournament is led by a teammate of Eugenio, the Mexican Abraham Ancer and the South African Dean Burmester who is looking for his third victory of the season after the ones achieved consecutively in the South African Open and in the Joburg Open co-sanctioned between the DP World Tour and the Sunshine Tour.
Also noteworthy is the round of Bryson DeChambeau who, without giving off great sensations, is only two strokes from the lead. The American is very much to be taken into account this week. Another of the great unknowns is Martin Kaymer who has started like a shot tied with Eugenio. The German has not achieved any top 10 in these almost two years of circuit, we will see if he is able to maintain the pace over the weekend. The player of the moment, Joaquín Niemann (-3), has finished tied with Rahm in a round in which his game has not shone especially. A stroke of genius from the street allowed him to gain many positions in the table.
Sergio García (+1) and David Puig (+2) did not have the desired start and will need to accelerate in the second round to climb positions as soon as possible.
