Jon Rahm has started his participation in one of the classic tournaments of the DP World Tour, the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, scoring 69 strokes (-3) in a first round in which the Basque arrived after the longest period between tournaments he has ever played. experienced throughout his career. The ‘Lion of Barrika’, visibly thinner, is four behind the leaders, the Portuguese Ricardo Gouveia, the Australian David Micheluzzi – two players with a high world ranking – and the American amateur David Ford (6th in the amateur classification) . An unexpected top trio in an event with several renowned favorites.
Attention to the American Akshay Bathia, who this week preferred the DPWT to the PGA and is already moving into the privileged positions. Ryan Fox went to 68, while Rory McIlroy, defending champion, and Matt Wallace and Thorbjorn Olesen (70) have not started badly. Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton and Adam Scott (71); Nikolai Hojgaard and Robert MacIntyre shot (72). Viktor Hovland (75) fared worse. Among the Spaniards, Iván Cantero signed 70, Manu Elvira 71 and his brother Nacho, 72. Also Ángel Hidalgo 71.
‘Rahmbo’, who this week sought advice on the course from Matt Wallace, started by giving himself numerous birdie options. He took advantage of holes 3 and 4. On the latter, the flag was very close to the bunker behind the green and Rahm’s ball ended up there. However, the winner of two majors holed out from the sand. In the 7th and 9th, the Biscayan paid dearly – two bogeys – for his ambition to go for the rag, but these are the risks that must be taken to win.
After those small mistakes, Jon turned the situation around in one fell swoop. The Basque hit a very long tee shot on the 10th hole, which went further than necessary when it went off the fairway to the right to end up in the desert. However, the Spaniard had a window between two trees and gave himself a second impeccable impact, to the point of leaving the ball four meters from the flag. He holed out and signed an eagle at the right moment on the turn. On the 13th (par 5) the start was not the best and on his second shot he did not hit the green. In any case, the Basque made another birdie.
For the winner of five Rolex Series events, the tee shots are perhaps the point to improve for what is to come. However, the recoveries he makes are usually very good and are not at all the result of fortune. On the 15th he hit a ball out of the rough that left it half a meter from the flag, although on the 16th the story repeated itself, but this time he couldn’t save par and dropped to -2 on the day. He recovered from -3 in the 17th.
