Jon Rahm put in a dominant performance to claim his maiden European Tour title at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open hosted by the Rory Foundation by a massive six shots over Scotland’s Richie Ramsay and England’s Matthew Southgate.
The 22-year-old, who was playing in only his sixth European Tour event, claimed 1,019,362 points, helping him maintain his third-placed position in the European Tour's Race to Dubai Rankings presented by Rolex. The Spaniard closed the gap to Sergio Garcia in second place to just 47,742 points.
Nick Tarratt, Director of the European Tour International Dubai office, said: “We congratulate Jon on his first European Tour win and. look forward to welcoming him to Dubai in November.
“With his explosive style of play, Jon is one of the most exciting upcoming players on Tour and is definitely one to look out for in the future.”
Colm McLoughlin, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of Dubai Duty Free was also full of praise for the winner: “Congratulations to Jon Rahm on a spectacular win. The golf course here at Portstewart provided an absolutely stunning backdrop and plenty of challenges to the competitors, which really added to the sense of occasion around the week.”
"This has become such an important event due to the fact that it is one of just eight tournaments on the Rolex Series, meaning that it has a substantial prize fund of over US$7 million this year. The tournament has developed and grown since the Rory Foundation became involved and we took over the title sponsorship three years ago and it is now one of the European Tour’s most important events.”
Rahm went in to the final day at the stunning Portstewart Golf Club in Northern Ireland on 18 under par and in a share of the lead with America’s Daniel Im.
But a superb eagle hole-out on the par five fourth and three straight birdies to close out the front nine saw him go out in 31 and pull ahead of the pack in wet and windy conditions.
Rahm produced a brilliant closing round of 65 to get to 24 under par and romp to victory by six shots over Ramsay and Southgate.
"This is a nice feeling," said Rahm, who moves to number eight in the Official World Golf Ranking.
"It's such a great honour now just to be part of the history of this event. Such a great country, such a great history in the tournament and such a great golf course. To me it's such a great week, it really is special for me to share it with three of my heroes.”
Joint runners-up Matthew Southgate and Richie Ramsay gained 531,223 points each, with Ramsay’s strong performance moving him from 104th to 18th place in the Rankings.
New Zealand’s Ryan Fox had a productive week with his tied for fourth place finish earning him 240,672 points, taking his season total to 602,320.
England’s Justin Rose joined Fox in fourth place to earn 240,672 points, which resulted in him moving up two places from seventh to fifth place with 1,529,404 for the season.
