The worst day at the most unexpected moment. Jon Rahm (+6) carded a 78 in the opening round of the Masters at Augusta. His chances of winning, buried. Now he has to fight to make the cut and it will not be easy. The golfer from Barrika did not see this bull coming and has ended up with a double goring
It was his worst round ever at Augusta, the first of his Masters career in which he made no birdies and he matched his worst opening score in a major. At the 2018 US Open at Shinnecock Hills he also started with a 78, although that was on a par‑70, so it was a +8. That week he missed the cut. We will see if this time he can turn it around to avoid breaking his phenomenal run of nine consecutive cuts made in this major, that is, every one since his debut in 2017
Rahm’s round fell apart on the greens. A dreadful day. Terrifying. One of the worst in his career. Not only was he unable to hole any birdie putts, none from beyond two metres except the one he holed for par at the 7th, but he looked completely off‑kilter, lost, directionless. He missed the first for par on the 1st from a tricky but makeable distance, and shortly afterwards missed another short one on the 3rd. From there he couldn’t recover his feel. He finished with four three‑putts. Incredible
Rahm didn’t see this round coming. He had been playing well, with confidence, really enjoying his putting on LIV, but as soon as he reached the firm, fast surfaces of Augusta National his putter went completely black. Jon didn’t want to pin all the blame on his putting, more as a defensive move to avoid losing confidence ahead of tomorrow’s round. “It wasn’t just the putting, everything was wrong,” he summed up, laconic and incredulous. Actually, off the tee he was brilliant, hitting eleven fairways. It’s true the irons weren’t sharp either, like the one at the 13th, terrible. He lost the ball with his second shot to the green and made a double bogey, with one of the four three‑putts. It was the final nail of the round. His first double bogey on that hole
The day was so bad that Jon admitted the only good thing was not reaching 80 strokes. “When I hit the second shot on the 17th and it ended up in that difficult position, honestly I thought I might go to 80. Luckily I made a great recovery and finished with a par at the 18th”
Rahm has no other plan than to make the cut. To do so he will have to post a good under‑par round on Friday to get to at least +4. It won’t be easy, but far from impossible, especially in his case and at the Masters, where he has already shown what he is capable of. That said, victory is now impossible and Jon himself, whose faith knows no bounds, showed it on his face as he left Augusta after a session of balls on the practice ground
