Jon Rahm’s Masters victory takes his career trajectory to new heights

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Canadian pro Jared du Toit spent a year alongside Jon Rahm while at Arizona State University. Rahm, then a senior, won everything there was to win and finished his collegiate career as the No.1-ranked amateur in the world. Rahm and du Toit are still pals, and they teed it up last Thursday before Rahm headed to the Masters.

“It was probably the best I’ve ever seen him look so the math checks out,” du Toit told Sportsnet with a laugh of Rahm’s four-shot win at the Masters Sunday. “The 20 bucks that he peeled off me definitely helped (for this week) for sure.”

Rahm came a long way from winning just $20 last Thursday, walking away with $3.24 million (U.S.) as a first-place prize (out of a record purse of $18 million) and becoming the fourth golfer from Spain to capture a Green Jacket.

It was a roller-coaster week for Rahm who started the tournament with a four-putt double bogey and who was on the bad side of the draw for the first two days (“’Perhaps’ the bad side?’” he joked). Starting Sunday, he was four back of Brooks Koepka’s lead, but with Koepka struggling in the final round, Rahm was able to take advantage.

Rahm shot a 3-under 69 in the fourth round and ended up winning by four over Koepka and 52-year-old Phil Mickelson, who became the oldest player with a top-5 finish in Masters history. After Rahm’s four-putt on the first hole Thursday, he was seemingly unflappable until the tee of the final hole Sunday – he snap-hooked it and it bounced off a tree to only about 100 yards.

“He doesn’t really hit any bad shots. He’s up by four on the last and he hits his first bad one of the week, but I don’t know. He’s crazy,” said du Toit. “He’s been playing so good, and he just doesn’t really have any flaws and he hasn’t really for a long time.”

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Rahm ended up hitting 86 percent of his fairways for the week and just a hair over 72 percent of his greens – good for fourth and third, respectively, in those categories.

This marked Rahm’s fourth win on the PGA Tour this season already. He will also ascend to world No.1, again, when the rankings become official on Monday.

The Masters always has a way of delivering the fairy-tale storytelling and this year was no different. Rahm’s win occurred 40 years exactly after countryman and childhood hero Seve Ballesteros won his second Green Jacket, and on Ballesteros’ birthday, to boot (he passed away in 2011). He said he heard ‘Do it for Seve’ all the way around Augusta National on Sunday.

“That might have been the hardest thing to control today, is the emotion of knowing what it could be if I were to win,” he said.

Rahm was embraced by countryman and fellow Masters winner Jose Maria Olazabal, behind the 18th green. It’s not surprising, according to du Toit, that this Spanish Masters lineage continued for his long-time pal.

“He’s always been a golf junkie, golf historian. Loved Seve, loved Olazabal… he was big on those guys. Even talking to him afterwards when he turned pro, Augusta, he would always say Augusta fitted his game the best,” said du Toit. “He loved the course, he loved the un-even lies, he loved the creativity but to actually get it done is something else.

“It’s crazy. Absolutely crazy.”

Rahm made birdie on the par-4 3rd and added another on No. 8. He bogeyed No. 9 but that was the last square on his scorecard for the day. Rahm birdied Nos. 13 and 14 and closed the door on the chasing pack. Koepka – who co-led after 18 and was the leader after the second and third rounds – shot a 3-over 75 Sunday, calling his day “super disappointing.”

Rahm, meanwhile, said he was trying to stay aggressive all day. He admitted he “may have looked calm” but he was nervous out there – thirty holes of golf is a lot to navigate on a Sunday when you’re trying to win your first Masters.

“With how good I was swinging, I like to stay aggressive, and if I have a three-shot lead, trying to make it four. If I have four, try to make it five. That’s the goal,” said Rahm. “I’ve always been confident when I’ve been close to the lead. I have full faith in all parts of my game. And maybe because it was that difficult out there, I was just focused on what I had to do.”

So, Rahm will drive out Magnolia Lane with a new addition to his closet. Du Toit, meanwhile, is off to a qualifier for the Korn Ferry Tour. Two different worlds of professional golf. But the Canadian couldn’t be happier for his friend – and the whole world is seeing what du Toit has known for a long time.

“He’s obviously got all the tools. More importantly he’s got the mind and the hunger to go with it – which is just crazy, to put all those pieces together,” said du Toit. “Sky’s the limit, I guess, and everyone is going to see it now.”

NOTES: Phil Mickelson shot a final-round 65. It was Mickelson’s lowest Masters final round ever and the low round of the day. Mickelson had just one top-10 finish at the Masters in the last 10 years prior to Sunday… Sahith Theegala chipped in for birdie on No. 16 from, very nearly, the same spot Tiger Woods made his iconic chip-in from in 2005. “Oh my god, you should have seen how many people said, ‘Do it for Tiger,’ he said. Theegala finished 9th and was the lowest of any 2023 Masters debutant… Jordan Spieth made nine birdies Sunday en route to a 6-under 66 and a T4 result. Spieth has the most rounds at the Masters with eight-or-more birdies in the last 30 years… Sam Bennett won Low Amateur honours after finishing tied for 16th. He was the lone non-pro to make the cut and was the first amateur to finish in the top 20 at the Masters since Ryan Moore in 2005… Rahm’s first-place cheque of $3.24 million was more than the entire purse 25 years ago.

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