Jon Rahm finished his opening round at the 2022 U.S. Open at -1 to place among the early leaders at The Country Club in Brookline, MA. If not for a couple of cheeky children, it might have been a little bit worse.
Rahm pushed a 300+ yard tee shot off the fairway and into the punishing heavy rough on the 18th hole. When he walked up to where the ball should have been, he found nothing. It wasn’t because of the long grass that had some of the world’s best golfers second-guessing themselves all day. It was because two young spectators had picked it up and ran off with it.
“I recognized the two kids that were running the opposite way with a smile on their face,” Rahm chuckled as he told the media after finishing his round. “I am 100% sure I saw the two kids that stole it.”
Fortunately, since his ball had been spotted before kids could abscond with it, he was given a free drop in an area where the rough was slightly lower than the speed-draining grass that dots the rest of the course. His approach hit the green, and one 21-foot putt later he’d turned potential disaster into a birdie and a round under par.
Jon Rahm hit his tee shot left on 18…then saw two children running away sheepishly. Sure enough, they’d taken his ball. Hilarious. He dropped, hit it to 20ish feet and made the birdie. All is well that ends well. pic.twitter.com/2OBuJCKo1H
— Dan Rapaport (@Daniel_Rapaport) June 16, 2022
“I’m just really happy somebody spotted the ball first,” said Rahm. “We knew exactly where it was. Off the tee, I was comfortable. I was past all the trees. It was downwind. I wasn’t trying to go that far left, but I was trying to take it over the trees and over the bunkers.”
Jon Rahm finishes his day at -1 after this birdie on the 18th. #USOpen
📺: @USA_Network pic.twitter.com/2Bor8rOd09
— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) June 16, 2022
Rahm’s bad luck/good luck situation put him in strong position for a potential repeat as U.S. Open champion. No word on whether or not the two scofflaws that got his ball have been caught — or whether they’ll get to keep it.
