Spanish Open: Spain's Jon Rahm retains title with five-shot victory in Madrid
- Published
Victory in Spain sees Rahm leapfrog Open champion Shane Lowry at the top of the European Tour's Race to Dubai leaderboard
Spanish Open (final leaderboard) |
-22 J Rahm (Spa); -17 R Cabrera Bello (Spa) -15 S Del Val (Spa); -13 J Winther (Den),J Hansen (Den), A Arnaus (Spa); -12 S Garcia (Spa), M Kawamura (Jpn), J Harding (SA), J Scrivener (Aus), Z Lombard (SA) |
Selected others:-10 James Morrison (Eng); -9 N McCarthy (Eng), R Fisher (Eng), C Hill (Sco); -8 J Singh Brar (Eng), J Donaldson (Wal); -7 C Hansen (Eng); -6 M Jimenez (Spa); -5 B Evans (Eng), L Slattery (Eng), S Brown (Eng) |
Spain's Jon Rahm retained his Spanish Open title with a five-shot victory over compatriot Rafa Cabrera Bello.
Rahm held a five-shot lead going into Sunday's finale in Madrid and he eased to the title after carding a five-under-par 66 final round.
World number 1,413 Samuel Del Val made it a Spanish one-two-three on 15 under.
The win was the 24-year-old world number five's fifth on the European Tour and second this year after the Irish Open in July.
Victory looked assured from the off as Rahm started his final round with three pars before an eagle three on the par-five fourth, then two more birdies on the front nine.
Two further birdies followed on 10 and 14 before a dropped shot on 17 saw him record just his sixth bogey of the week.
"I'm not happy I three-putted 17, I wanted to go bogey-free, but at the end of the day I did the important thing, I was able to successfully defend it in front of the home crowd," Rahm told Sky Sports.
"It might not be the strongest field yet but it's always really hard for me to keep everything under control and to play the weekend that I did for them is always really fun.
"I can't wait for next year to come back and hopefully do it three times."
Rahm now leads the European Tour's Race to Dubai leaderboard with seven events remaining, overtaking Open champion Shane Lowry.