Do you know Jon Rahm? He is not a man of easy emotions. Yet even the Lion of Barrika couldn’t withstand all the emotions experienced on the decisive day of the 45th edition of the Ryder Cup. Europe won by just two points (15-13) after starting with a seven-point lead. Agonising. Not since Medinah has the Ryder had such a close finish.
We move to the 18th green at Bethpage Black. It’s 17:16 local time in New York when something unprecedented happens. And no, it’s not just that Shane Lowry holed the decisive putt that ensured the European team retained the cup for another two years. Barely forty-five seconds later, something unprecedented occurred. Jon Rahm was crying on a golf course. It happened, as it could only happen, when he met José María Olazábal: “I would say I haven’t cried on a golf course before. I didn’t expect it from myself, but seeing Olazábal there and how emotional he gets, it happened and it was very beautiful.” Neither the 2021 US Open nor the 2023 Masters… this competition has that sparkle, that certain something…
Only a Ryder Cup can generate emotions like this. The accumulated tension, the five matches behind him, and the agonising outcome were the perfect cocktail for tears to flow down his cheeks. Nothing foreshadowed it would be such a Sunday. The Sunday that seemed to be pleasant turned into a tense walk on the edge of a cliff. The reality is that tension was building up around Bethpage, and the Spaniard acknowledged it: “It has been one of the most tense Sundays of my career, without a doubt. Because of everything that could happen, because of how the scoreboard was going. There was a lot of tension, a lot of pressure…”, stated the man from Barrika, who looked visibly tired.
The Spaniard acknowledges that these have been days of great intensity: “They have been non-stop days. From the moment we went out to the practice field until the day ended, every shot, every swing, every putt… it was very intense, the difference is that the first two days I had a partner to lean on. Mentally it has been very complicated, but we finally survived.”
Jon, in his ongoing battle to be an important player in the history books of golf, can now claim to have won a Ryder away from home. He is now one of the 47 European players who knows what it’s like to win the competition on American soil and the fifth Spaniard to achieve it after Seve, Pepín Rivero, José María Olazábal, Sergio García, and Miguel Ángel Jiménez. Have no doubt that Rahm already knows that only Seve and Sergio achieved it twice (1987 and 1995; 2004 and 2012). This fact once again reflects the prowess of Spanish golf.
Jon’s individual performance in this Ryder can be said to have gone from strength to weakness. He started with a glorious Friday, both in terms of results and play, won his foursome match on Saturday, but began to feel the fatigue in his legs and fell in the afternoon fourball. This Sunday, he was defeated 4&3 (the most lopsided result of the day) by a Xander Schauffele who outplayed him in the last nine holes. The end does not tarnish a Ryder in which he once again emerged as one of the great standard-bearers. He was only surpassed in points by Tommy Fleetwood, Rory McIlroy, and Tyrrell Hatton. Only the Ryder can bring a tear to Jon Rahm’s eye…
