Jon Rahm offers on-brand response to club break at Open de Espana
Jon Rahm overcame a broken driver in the third round of the Open de Espana to fly up the leaderboard and tee up a chance at victory.
A. Hidalgo | -13 |
J. Rahm | -11 |
D. Puig | -10 |
J. Dean | -8 |
P. Reed | -8 |
J. Fahrbring | -7 |
A. Arnaus | -7 |
A. Garcia-Heredia | -6 |
S. Crocker | -5 |
T. Fleetwood | -5 |
Jon Rahm overcame a broken driver during the third round of the Open de Espana to tee up a chance of glory in Madrid.
Rahm is bidding to become a four-time champion of his national open.
The Spaniard is tied on three wins with the late, great Seve Ballesteros.
On Saturday, Rahm had issues with his driver early on which meant that he had to wait until the 14th hole until it was repaired.
Not that it mattered too much, though, given he played the first 13 holes in 4-under par thanks to birdies at 4, 7, 9 and 13.
Rahm found more birdies at 16 and 18 to card a bogey-free round of 6-under 65.
It means he trails Spain's Angel Hidalgo by two strokes going into the final round.
Rahm's LIV compatriot David Puig is a further stroke behind.
Patrick Reed and Tommy Fleetwood are also inside the top-10 on 5-under but will need something remarkably special and probably some help if they are going to win.
"At the end of the day on this course, if you put it in the fairway, you’re always going to be better than hitting the driver offline," Rahm told reporters after his round.
"Did a pretty good job mitigating that."
He added: "But I was happy to get the driver as quickly back as I did. I just assumed I would play the rest of the round without it.
"I was happy to hear the news on 12 that I would have it by 14.
"I think it might have been what — I don't know, just a little moment of happiness that gave me a little boost for the rest of the round."
Asked about what he expects in the final round, Rahm added: "Hopefully I can end up with the win but it's definitely going to be a Sunday atmosphere-wise that they [those in contention] haven't experienced yet.
"There's going to be a lot of people watching, and it's going to be a lot of fun."
A victory for Rahm would cap off a hectic week in which he had to pull out of LIV's Team Championship with the flu before flying back home to Arizona for the birth of his third child.
Rahm told reporters earlier in the week his wife Kelley has given birth to a baby girl, though he did not reveal her name.
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