Jon Rahm beat by 398th-ranked participant in world in David-vs.-Goliath playoff

Jon Rahm is a residing legend at Open de Espana, the place this week he was looking for his fourth profession title at his homeland’s nationwide championship.

Late within the closing spherical on Sunday, it appeared like Rahm may do it, when he birdied his closing two holes at Membership de Campo Villa de Madrid to muscle his method right into a playoff.

However one other Spaniard finally stole Rahm’s thunder. After lacking a 4-footer to the win title on the 72nd gap, unheralded 26-year-old Angel Hidalgo birdied back-to-back holes within the playoff towards Rahm to say the victory — his first on the DP World Tour.

“I used to be fairly relaxed all day, even the primary tee, I don’t know why,” Hidalgo, who got here into the week because the 398th-ranked participant on the earth, stated after the spherical. “Even after I missed the brief putt [at the first] — or this one, gap 72 — I used to be not discouraged.”

Hidalgo’s David-defeats-Goliath win put a cap on a shocking ascendance. Simply a few years in the past, Hidalgo, a two-time Spanish Beginner champion and former Alps and Problem Tour participant, was onsite for the Open de Espana — however not as a participant, as a fan.

“Two or three years in the past, I used to be in precisely this course, the primary tee, within the timber, supporting Jon — with out taking part in, I simply come right here to Madrid to see the event,” he stated. “To be right here and win the event is unreal.”

Hildago fired rounds of 65-67-68-70 to notch the win. Nonetheless, he wasn’t satisfied it was going to occur midway by the ultimate spherical.

“On the eighth tee, I believed David Puig [another Spaniard] goes to win the event by eight as a result of he was hitting superb, and Jon and myself made a couple of errors,” he stated.

Profitable a nationwide open on dwelling soil to your maiden title is fairly heady stuff, however taking down Rahm made it much more particular for Hidalgo.

“He’s a very powerful participant from the final 20 years or 30 years in Spain,” he stated. “In order that’s an additional level.”

Golf.com Editor

As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of feminine varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everybody on the masthead. She will out-hustle them within the workplace, too, the place she’s primarily answerable for producing each print and on-line options, and overseeing main particular tasks, equivalent to GOLF’s inaugural Type Is­sue, which debuted in February 2018. Her origi­nal interview sequence, “A Spherical With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in each within the journal and in video type on GOLF.com.