Sin the big rifle for eight holes, without the driver between the 6th and 14thwhen they repaired it, “although except in the 6th he didn’t need it either”, Jon Rahm went after Ángel Hidalgo at the Acciona Open in Spain, with his training partner in Arizona -although they have never played together-, David Puig, also shooting 65 shots. The man from Malaga, on a stressful day, defended himself with integrity (68) and held two and three shots ahead, respectively, before the final fight, in the same match, on Sunday. “It’ll be fun,” Jon announced. “Maybe for them it will be a new experience.”
Saturday, the day of the move, was a day of bustle, hard greens and sunshine. Autumn has already entered Madrid, but the 20 degrees were ideal for the game and allowed for short sleeves. Hidalgo moved comfortably. “What hands he has,” said Carlos Balmaseda, one of the veteran Spanish golfers who has followed him since he started. He saved a good par on the 1st hole and when he had made a mistake, the first bogey, and the moment was critical, he made a nine-meter putt on the 3rd that healed the mishap.
.
The club of the green is what is holding him up this week. He leads the statistics with 0.4 profit per hole compared to their usual records, which translates into six fewer strokes throughout the tournament. It has given him superb confidence and that allowed him to finish the first nine holes with only one stroke less than what he had started with: three strokes. Although now the enemy was another, the feared and insatiable Rahm, who had reached -8 playing some great iron like in the 9 and taking advantage of the par 5s. Some wind was starting to blow.
Barrika’s was in assault mode. He took the fairways, attacked the flags without getting cut and shot for birdie at all opportunities. Also nearby was the other Olympian, David Puig, who reached eight under par after the last par 5, the 14th. It was a sporting civil war. The leader, meanwhile, saved pars with determination and continued up and down, until he missed a simple one-meter putt on the 12th and committed another bogey.
Rahm got within one shot with another birdie, the fourth, on 13, the hole from which the four towers can be seen. As five years ago, in the Basque’s second victory in the national tournament, the Spanish shortlist for Sunday’s main match was drawn. Then Cabrera and Del Val accompanied him. Now, Hidalgo and Puig. Only Joe Dean, the English department store deliveryman until April, who had achieved an eagle from 150 meters on 12th Street, could avoid it.
The brave man from Malaga made up for it with an immediate success and, as in the first bogey, he reacted with two birdies -superb execution of the entire 15th with a drive 68 meters from the flag- to convince himself that on this lap, even if “the safety car” came out, as he said on Friday applying the Formula 1 simile that he has been doing all week , he would have the pole on Sunday. Even if it was by the narrow margin of two strokes, Rahm instantly nailed a dart for the fifth birdie a meter from the flag on the 16th.
Ángel Hidalgo hits at the exit of a hole
Like the 18th, with the tee advanced so that golfers were encouraged to hit the flag with the first shot on a par 4 of just 274 metersit was a bargain hole, everyone made a birdie that predicts unless another beats the course record a Spanish victory in its national Open: the fourth for Jon or the first for Puig or Hidalgo. “I will have nerves, but I hope to transform them into something positive,” said Ángel before returning to the hotel to continue fighting with the broken heating. On such an important day, it seems like the last of their problems.
