Spaniard Jon Rahm won the rain-slogged Masters today by starting the day in second place, four strokes behind four-time major winner Brooks Koepka, and ending the day four strokes ahead of Koepka. Fifty-two year old Phil Mickelson, a three-time Masters champion himself, shot a blistering 65 today to tie Koepka for runnerup. This victory by Rahm was his second major win, and it moved him back into first place in world rankings.
This Masters Tournament was chaotic due to such inclement weather. It had much rain which soaks the ground deeply. Thus yesterday, a group of three very tall pines trees near the 17th tee–without warning and while the atmosphere was calm–suddenly uprooted and came crashing to the ground. People could have been killed. Fortunately, they did not land on any of the several patrons standing around the area. Tournament officials then immediately stopped play for the day at about 4:00 PM Eastern. The leaders then had about 25 holes to play today to complete the tournament under dry, but still somewhat windy and cool, conditions.
In the traditional, post-tournament and televised proceedings in Butler Cabin, Rahm said in his speech that he was so honored to win this Masters Tournament exactly forty years after his idol and fellow Spaniard Seve Ballesteros won this tournament, which was also Seve’s birthdate. And Rahm mentioned multiple times that he won the tournament on Easter.
A story that had occupied center-stage in this week’s Masters was the rivalry between the PGA Tour and the Saudi-backed upstart tour LIV Golf. It had not been certain whether LIV players eligible for Master would be invited. They were a few months ago, and their number was 18 players, which included Koepka. Plus, Jon Rahm has been one of the PGA Tour’s most outspoken players favoring the PGA Tour in the dispute, which involves a hefty lawsuit that will go to court early next year. And except for Koepka’s uncertain health the past 2-3 years that included knee surgery, Koepka has surely been the top marquee player for LIV.
So, it was interesting to see that this tournament turned out to be almost a match play event between the two top stars on the two tours, with Rahm being a quite vocal advocate of the PGA Tour in its opposition to LIV Golf. Some LIV players competing in the Masters this week had said that if one of their guys won, some of them would have been there at the 18th green to celebrate with their winner in demonstration of LIV Golf against the PGA Tour. Starting the day today, it looked like that might happen. But an 8-shot swing between them proved otherwise.
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