Jon Rahm’s 77 shots in the second round of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic can be considered a complete blow for a player who is used to totally different results and who started the tournament quite well (69). Until the day closes, the ‘León de Barrika’ will not make the cut in its first tournament of the season. We will have to wait to see him in action again at LIV Golf Riyadh (February 6-8).
On Thursday the Spanish golfer was not good off the tee, but he made very good recoveries. This Friday he was really erratic on his tee shot and that condemned him. He started at 10, where the day before he had made an eagle; His second shot went into one of the bunkers surrounding the green and there he lost his chances of at least a birdie. The par wasn’t bad, but it was a wasted par 5.
‘Rahmbo’ made three bogeys, two double bogeys and two birdies. The first double failure came in the 12th after an exit that placed his ball under some dandelions. He played it but his ball went into some bushes and he had to drop it. Then on the green he ended up tripping. In the 16th his start was calamitous, but Jon managed to get out only with a bogey. On the 18th (par 5) he made his second double bogey. He went to the starting water, dropped and caught water again trying to place it on the green, so there was a new drop. At this point he was already at +5 for the day and with that bad feeling he went to the 1st tee, where he missed the first shot again and did not come back from it.
He still didn’t sharpen his aim, although he finally had some joy on the 6th hole. On the 8th he had another bogey, this time because of the putt. The birdie on 9 did not alleviate the pain, as the Biscayan’s round was far from what he is used to. “Everything was a bit bad in general. The worst, obviously from the tee,” Jon declared to ‘elperiodigolf’ and ‘ten-golf’. “Don’t panic, we’ve just begun,” he added.
The lead of the tournament at the clubhouse has been taken by the Australian Daniel Hillier (133 strokes). Jason Scrivener and Laurie Canter have 136, while Min Woo Lee and Rasmus Hojgaard are at 137. Patrick Reed is at 139 and the best Spaniard after 36 holes is Iván Cantero (140).
