Jon Rahm (+5) did not produce the round he needed this Saturday to give himself a chance of victory at the Masters of Augusta. His candidacy to defend the title is already out of the equation. His tee to green feelings have improved compared to the first two days, but today he has been completely abandoned by his putter.
The golfer from Barrika has signed a card of 72 strokes with one birdie, one bogey and sixteen pars. Scarce baggage to even slightly open a crack to victory. Who knows if everything would have been different if he had holed the two good birdie opportunities he generated on holes 3 and 4.
Because Jon today has played golf much better than Thursday and Friday. Although he is still not completely comfortable with the swing, at least he has found something that allows him to “hit it forward”, as he himself says, and put it into play. Today he has reminded us of that solid and consistent player. In fact, he has putted for birdie on 16 holes, although he has not always left them very close.
The turning point was on holes 3 and 4. In the first he had a birdie putt of just over two meters and in the second he was just a meter away after a monstrous shot on this tough par 3. He didn’t hole any. If he goes two under par there, it is very likely that the story of the round would have been very different.
However, the putter has been tremendously cold today. He has only holed two good putts in the entire round, one for par on the 6th, from about three meters, and another for birdie on the 17th, the only one of the day, from about five. He celebrated it almost with relief. “At least I was able to finish the round with a miserable birdie,” he said, taking a difficult day in terms of result with good humour.
The best thing about today’s round is that he finished playing better, gaining confidence that can help him to sign a really low round this Sunday. Don’t rule it out. His two drives on the 17th and 18th were very powerful, and the best swing of the day and of the week came precisely on the second shot of the 18th, although he ended up a bit long and didn’t hole the birdie putt.
It can be said that Jon has finished with the arrows up thinking about tomorrow and with a goal. “I still have a chance to get into the top 10 if I shoot a low round, that’s the idea. Come back tomorrow and play as best I can and see what happens,” he explained. The key is for the putter to accompany him, too cold all week.
We don’t know what result Rahm will achieve this Sunday or the position in which he will finish, what is certain is that he will have to comply with the tradition of putting the green jacket on the new champion of the Masters of Augusta. The one from Barrika has answered the politically incorrect question: who would you like to put the jacket on? “Well, you put me in a bind, but I would say that because of the good times we had at the Ryder Cup in Italy, how well we got along and with whom I would say there is some friendship, I would like Nicolai Hojgaard“, says Jon.
The bet, of course, is risky. Let’s not forget that Nicolai is playing the Masters of Augusta for the first time in his life. His victory would be something historic. Only three have achieved it in the 88 editions: Horton Smith in the first, obviously, Gene Sarazen in 1935 and Fuzzy Zoeller, the most recent, in 1979.
