Back from Quarantine, Rahm Wins U.S. Open with Birdie-Birdie Finish

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SAN DIEGO -- You could think of Jon Rahm as having just won a 126-hole tournament by seven shots against the best players in the world.

Two weeks ago, he was the star/victim of a bizarre little soap opera that took place in Ohio. As he walked off the 18th green at Muirfield Village after shooting a third-round 64 and taking a six-stroke at the Memorial Tournament, he was informed that he had tested positive for Covid 19. As a result, he was forced to withdraw from the tournament, although it was really more of a DQ, which probably cost him the first prize of $1.674 million. 

And he was also being put into a 10-day quarantine that was going to end just before the U.S. Open. 

Rahm would not have been tested for Covid -- and consequently wouldn't have been DQ'd from the Memorial -- if he hadn't procrastinated in getting vaccinated. When he arrived at Torrey Pines for the Open last week, he conceded that he should have gotten vaccinated earlier. But he convinced himself that all of what had happened was for the best -- and that "the stars were aligning, and I knew my best golf was to come."

He was right. 

On Sunday, Rahm made two really difficult putts for birdies at the 17th and 18th holes and won the Open by a single stroke over Louis Oosthuizen. 

The 26-year-old from Spain -- his full name is actually John Rahm Rodriguez (Rahm is the paternal surname, and Rodriguez the maternal family name) -- closed the deal with a 4-under-par 67 and concluded 72 holes with a total of 278 (6 under). For the effort, he received $2,250,000, which elevated him to No. 1 on the 2020-21 PGA Tour  money list, with $6,111,433 -- despite forfeiting all that money at the Memorial.

It was his sixth victory on the PGA Tour, but his first in a major championship. He is the first Spanish player to win the U.S. Open. 

With the victory, Rahm reclaimed the No. 1 spot in the Official Wold Golf Rankings. He certainly deserves it, considering that he's beaten everyone he's played against by seven shots over his last seven rounds of competition. His judgment where Covid was concerned could be questioned, but not his golf game. He is clearly playing better than anyone else on the planet right now. 

Ooshuizen, who bogeyed the 17th hole and birdied the 18th, shot 71 to finish at 279. He, too, has one victory in a major on his resume. But he won the British Open in 2010, and since then, the 38-year-old South African has finished second six times in majors, including the two most recent ones. His consolation prize for another runner-up finish was $1,350,000.

Harris English posted a 68 more than an hour before Rahm and Oosthuizen finished their rounds. That put him at 281, and was good enough for third. 

There are always lesser-known players who show up on the leader boards at major championships. Russell Henley and Richard Bland were the two that got the most attention in this one. Bland, 48, a European Tour late-bloomer (in May, he won for the first time in two and a half decades as a professional), was a co-leader after 36 holes, but he fell away on Saturday when he shot 77. He shot 78 on Sunday and tied for 50th.

His place was taken by Mackenzie Hughes, 30, a Canadian with one PGA Tour victory. He was tied for first after 54 holes at 208, along with Henley and Ooshuizen. But he shot 77 on Sunday, which put him in a tie for 15th at 285. Henley, 32, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour, was in the lead or near it from the first round on Thursday until he made consecutive bogeys at the sixth, seventh and eighth holes on Sunday, and he just missed finishing in the top 10 with a 76. His bogey at the 18th hole dropped him from a tie for seventh into a tie for 13th at 284. 

The mystery guest who was still at the party late Sunday was Guido Migliozzi, a 24-year-old who has won twice on the European Tour. He put together a valedictory 68, which got him into a tie for fourth at 282, along with 2020 PGA champion Collin Morikawa and four-time major champ Brooks Koepka, who matched Rahm's 67 for the low round of the day -- and tournament.

For anyone who turned the tournament off as the leaders made the turn, and might be wondering what happened to the defending champion, Bryson DeChambeau. Golf's mad scientist was going along very well with his bomb-and-gouge strategy through 64 holes and was leading the tournament at that point, having gone 30 holes without a bogey. Then the wheels fell off.

DeChambeau bogeyed the 11th and 12th holes and doubled the par-5 13th to fall out of contention. And he made a quadruple-bogey 8 at the 17th on his way to a back-nine 44. He wound up with a 77 and tied for 26th at 287.

The hometown favorite was Phil Mickelson, who became the oldest player to win a major when he captured the PGA Championship -- finishing just ahead of Oosthuizen -- in May. It was his sixth major title. He turned 51 on Wednesday, and a lot of people were hoping that the six-time U.S. Open runner-up could complete his career grand slam at Torry Pines as a kind of birthday present. It was never going to happen, though, at least not after he shot 75 on Thursday.

Mickelson made several heroic par saves on Friday just to shoot 69 make the cut with two shots to spare at 144. But he shot 76-75 on the weekend and tied for 62nd at 295. 

Rahm's failure to get vaccinated in a timely manner was surprising, because he's a smart guy. He came to the United States nine years ago to attend Arizona State on a golf scholarship. He could barely speak a word of English.

The first college tournament he played in was the University of Minnesota's Gopher Invitational at Windsong Farm, in September of 2012. It didn't go all that well for Rahm. Kent State's Corey Conners, a future PGA Tour winner, claimed first place, and another future PGA Tour winner, Max Homa of Cal, tied for second. DeChambeau, who was a freshman at SMU, finished seventh.

Rahm opened with an 81 and followed it with 73 and 78 for a 54-hole total of 232. He tied for 41st. 

Four and a half years later, after winning the Ben Hogan Award (given to the best player in college golf) twice and being No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings for a record 60 weeks (and graduating with a BA degree in communications), Rahm won his first PGA Tour event. It was the Farmers Insurance Open in late January of 2017 -- at Torrey Pines. He secured the victory by making a 60-foot eagle putt on the 18th hole.

Rahm's speech at the trophy presentation was short, and his English was perfect.

He has won five times since then on the PGA Tour, and he has seven European Tour wins (the U.S. Open counts as a victory on both tours).   

On Sunday, Rahm began the round at 2-under 211, three behind the triumvirate at the top of the leader board -- Oosthuizen, Henley and Mackenzie. That changed quickly, as he birdied the 446-yard, par-4 first hole and the 387-yard, par-4 second. He bogeyed the fourth (486 yards, par 4), but got back to 2 under for the day -- and 4 under for the tournament -- with a birdie at the par-5 ninth (609 yards).

That was where he stayed for the first seven holes on the back nine. But there was a lot going on around him. 

DeChambeau made the turn at 5 under and was the leader, but then he began his descent at the 11th.

Oosthuizen got to minus 5 with a birdie at the ninth and took sole possession of first place, at 6 under, with a birdie at the  449-yard, par-4 10th. He slipped back to 5 under, however, when he bogeyed the 222-yard, par-3 11th.  

Morikawa shot 32 (3 under) on the front nine, which had him tied with Rahm at 4 under. But he doubled the par-5 13th and bogeyed the 513-yard, par-4 15th -- and was back where he started the day, at minus 1. He birdied the 18th to claim his share of fourth place.

Rory McElroy, like Koepka, is a four-time major champion. He won the U.S. Open in 2011, the PGA in 2012, and both the British Open and PGA in 2014 -- and was playing so well at the time that he appeared to be on his way to a major victory total in double figures. But he hasn't won a major since then. He got to 4 under on Sunday with a front-nine 34, but a three-putt bogey at the 11th seemed to throw him off a bit, and he double bogeyed the 12th (501 yards, par 4). He hit a couple of gargantuan shots at the 612-yard 13th and two-putted for a birdie, but his putter was of little help to him during the tournament, and that didn't change over the last five holes.

So it came down to Oosthuizen, at 5 under with five holes to go, and Rahm, up ahead of him, at 4 under. 

Rahm hit his drive into a fairway bunker at the 440-yard, par-4 17th, but the players who were high on the leader board hit a lot of good shots out of bunkers all week, and Rahm hit his approach to 20 feet. He had to play 3 or 4 feet of break on the birdie putt, but he made it. 

At 568 yards, the par-5 18th was the easiest hole at Torrey Pines during the Open, but you had to hit the fairway to have a chance to clear the pond guarding the front of the green with your second shot. Rahm found the fairway and then hit his second into the right greenside bunker. He didn't want to hit his blast from the sand directly at the hole, because that would have risked having the ball trickle past the pin, go down the slope -- and into the water. So Rahm played his bunker shot out to the right, above the hole.

That left him with another nasty, left-to-right breaking putt, from almost the same distance as the one at the 17th, just under 20 feet. But once again, he hit a perfect putt -- and it went in. Now he was at minus 6, one ahead of Oosthuzen. 

Oosthuizen still had three holes left to play. He left his birdie try 6 feet short at the long par-3 16th (223 yards), but made the putt for his fifth par in a row, which kept him within striking distance of Rahm. Or at least within tying distance. Then he made the mistake that decided the tournament in Rahm's favor, pulling his tee shot into the hazard to the left of the 17th fairway. Oosthuizen hit a pretty good wedge shot after taking a drop, and a one-stroke penalty, but missed a 10-foot putt for his par. 

Now two behind and needing an eagle at the 18th just to tie and force a playoff, Oosthuizen missed the 18th fairway by about 3 yards, and that virtually settled the issue. There was no way he could hit his second shot to the green from that lie in the rough and keep it on the green. He was going to have to hole a wedge shot for an eagle, and he didn't. His third shot was wide right by a few feet, but it stopped 12 feet past the hole, and he made the putt from there to finish at 5 under.  

There were  record 15 players from Minnesota or with Minnesota connections who made it through local qualifying for the Open and into the sectionals this year. Three of them then got through the sectionals.

Erik Van Rooyen, the former University of Minnesota No. 1 who won the State Amateur at Hastings CC in 2012, turned in the most impressive performance in the qualifying. He shot 68-64--132 at Brookfield G&CC and the Lakes G&CC in Columbus, Ohio, and was a co-medalist in a field of 120. But he may have used up most of his quota of birdies for the month, and he missed the cut by a single stroke at Torry Pines with a 147 (74-73).

Tom Hoge and Troy Merritt both made the cut. Hoge is from Fargo but he won the Minnesota State Amateur twice, in 2009 and '10. He was 1 over for the first two rounds of the Open (72-71--143), and tied for 21st, but he shot 76-72 over the weekend and slipped back into a tie for 46th at 291.

Merritt moved from Idaho to Fridley just before starting ninth gradel, but he went to Spriing Lake Park High School, where he was a star for both the basketball and golf teams. He was a Division II All-American at Winona State, but transferred after his sophomore year to Boise State, where he had the best scoring average in all of NCAA Division I golf (69.2) as a senior. After making the cut on the number (75-71), he shot 73 on Saturday and 78 on Sunday, which put him in a tie for 65th at 297. 


U.S. Open

At Torrey Pines (South Course)

Par 71, 7,652 yards

San Diego

Final results 

1. Jon Rahm                           $2,250,000     69-70-72-67--278

2. Louis Oostuizen                  $1,350,000     67-71-70-71--279

3. Harris English                        $829,084      71-70-71-68--281

T4. Guido Migliozzi                    $498,176      71-70-73-68--282

T4. Brooks Koepka                    $498,176      69-73-71-69--282

T4. Collin Morikawa                   $498,176      75-67-70-70--282

T7. Xander Schauffele               $306,893      69-71-72-71--283

T7. Branden Grace                    $306,893      72-70-74-67--283

T7. Daniel Berger                      $306,893       71-72-72-68--283

T7. Paul Casey                         $306,893       71-75-67-790--283

T7. Scottie Scheffler                 $306,893        72-69-70-72--283

T7. Rory McElroy                     $306,893         70-73-67-73--283

T46. Tom Hoge                          $32,351          71-71-76-72--291

T65. Troy Merritt                       $23,437           75-71-73-78--297

Missed cut -- 146

Erik Van Rooyen                                                  74-73--147