It must have been a bit bemusing to be Brooks Koepka at Augusta National on Sunday. After 54 holes he led the tournament by two shots from the 28-year-old Spaniard, Jon Rahm. He had essentially been in the same situation in Orlando the previous Sunday and had duly been declared the winner. The distinction, of course, is that the Masters is not a LIV Golf event. There were a further 18 holes to play. He shot 75. Rahm shot 69. Game over.
Rahm thus won his second major championship (the 2021 US Open being the first) 40 years after the late Seve Ballesteros had won his second Masters. Rahm was effectively introduced to golf because of the enthusiasm for the game his father acquired after attending the 1997 Ryder Cup at Valderrama, where Ballesteros had been the victorious European captain. Rahm’s victory was given added poignancy by Sunday being what would have been Seve’s 66th birthday. “History of the game is a big reason why I play and Seve is a big part of that history,” said Rahm. “For me to get it done on the 40th anniversary of his second Masters win and on his birthday was incredibly meaningful.” Two of Seve’s children were there to see him become the fourth Spaniard to do it (José Maria Olazábal and Sergio Garcia being the other two).
Related: Jon Rahm targets ‘absolutely amazing’ career grand slam after winning Masters
This was Rahm’s fourth win of the season, sealed with a four at the 18th. “It was a very unusual par, very much a Seve par,” he said. “This one is for Seve. I knew he would be up there helping and help he did.” For the record, he hit his drive into the trees, from where it rebounded out about 150 yards from the tee. He then hit a mid-iron to about 80 yards and an exquisite Seve-esque pitch to four feet. These would not have been the first things on Rahm’s mind but his win also earned him $3,240,000 and it returned him to the position of being world No. 1.
Oh yes, the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR). Koepka finished in a tie for second with Phil Mickelson, the 52-year-old three-time Masters champion who closed with a glorious seven-under-par 65. Before last week, Koepka was ranked 118th in the world, Mickelson 425th. LIV Golf events carry no OWGR points, but then Mickelson has only had two top-20 finishes in 10 LIV starts and now he has just been runner-up in a major: what does that tell us? They are now respectively ranked 39th and 72nd. Among those a shot further back was Patrick Reed, another LIV guy who has consequently seen his OWGR rise from 70th to 45th. Do not expect the no-points-for-LIV debate to die down anytime soon.
In other news, Tiger Woods, five times a champion at Augusta, made news at the halfway stage rather than at the business end of proceedings by tying the record (shared with Fred Couples and Gary Player) of 23 consecutive cuts made at the Masters. Injury then forced his withdrawal after seven holes of his third round. So 43 holes in total for him. Rory McIlroy didn’t make it that far; mediocre golf caused his elimination after 36 holes. For Brooks Koepka, it would have been much better if it had all been over after 54.
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