As in the famous story of Monterroso, Patrick Cantlay woke up one more day and the dinosaur was still there. The dinosaur is Jon Rahm, lurking from the first hole of the PGA final, the Tour Championship. The work of harassment and demolition of the Biscayan to recover the four disadvantages with which he started at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta (USA) began on Thursday, when he left the difference in two. On Friday there was another subtraction and this Saturday, although he gave a break, he forced Cantlay, who was going like a demigod without missing a fairway, putting all the important putts, to show his human face.
The Californian recovered one of the blows he had previously lost with his -3 for -20, but has fallen off the unflappable robot facade that he brought from his portentous performance at the BMW last week. Rahmbo, -2 for -18, came to lead after his birdie at 3, when Cantlay still could not start the birdie machine. He did it in the sixth, answering a new stake, and subtracted again in the 7 and 9. With a stumble from the Basque in the eighth the gap was opened to four strokes.
The American’s engine took a long time to seize, but it finally did. And how. Bogeys came to 11, 14 and 16. No other fell on 12 miracle. Rahm subtracted in 13. He was back to one. But he found no response to a new birdie from Cantlay, making a mid-distance putt on par 5 of 18, and he was two. The dinosaur is still there, at a perfectly affordable distance from the grand prize: the 15 million dollars (twelve and a half euros) that the FedEx Cup distributes and the honor of being the first Spaniard to win it. The final battle will be this Sunday and points to a heads up, with the next pursuer, Justin Thomas (-5 to -15), three strokes despite his strenuous efforts to get closer.
He does not aspire to that much, still far from the head despite another great round of golf (and there have been a few in recent months), Sergio García. The Castellón sealed a -4 to -6 in total, thanks to six birdies and two bogeys, which leaves him in 13th place, at the gates of the top-10 on his return to the final after three years of absence. Padraig Harrington is running out of arguments every day for not extending one of the invitations to the European Ryder team that reserves itself as captain. Although to tell the truth, he has never paid much attention to them.
Check here the complete classification of the Tour Championship.