RAHMBO STRIKES AGAIN

Exactly 40 years after Seve’s second Masters victory, and what would have been his 66th birthday, you became the fourth Spaniard to win the green jacket. Can you walk us through your emotions the moment you sealed the victory?

It’s hard to put it into words. Obviously, as players, we all dream of things like this happening, and you try to visualize what it’s going to feel like, but you just never know how you’ll will react when the time actually comes. When I hit my third shot onto the green on 18, I could tell it from the crowd’s reaction that it was close and I knew the job was done. I just felt a wave of emotion overtake me. I never thought that winning a golf tournament was going to make me cry, but I got very close on that 18th hole, I can tell you.

And a lot of it is because of what it means to me, and also to what is means to be a Spanish golfer. It’s the 10th major win for a Spanish player, a fourth Spanish player to win the Masters, my second major championship – so it’s all pretty incredible.

And to play the way I did on Sunday, making only one bogey in difficult conditions, and to win by four shots, makes me very proud. I was proud of the way I handled myself and what I have achieved. This one was for Seve. He was up there helping me for sure.

You’re also the first European player to win the Masters and the US Open. What does that mean to you?

Really? I find it hard to believe that I’m the first one, but I’ll definitely take it! Wow. I had no idea. Thank you for letting me know. You know, making history is something very few people get to do, so that’s a very humbling feeling to know that I’m the first European player to do that. It’s a pretty good pairs of majors to have. The US Open is about as hard a test as you’re ever going to nd, but if I was ever going to win one it had to be at Torrey Pines. All I asked for was a chance, and I got it. and nish as high as I can, whether that’s fourth, tenth, or whatever, it’s always going to be better than settling for less than 100% e ort. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t try my hardest on every shot, so maybe that’s where it comes from. that my lead could disappear very

How important was it that you were playing in the same group as Brooks [Koepka] in that nal round?

It wasn’t not match play, but early on it kind of felt like it, especially before others further back started making all those birdies. After my birdie on 3, I think we were ve shots clear of the pack, so it felt like a matchplay situation. I wasn’t expecting Brooks to play badly, so I knew I need to bring the ght to him. So when I took the tee shot on 4, the goal was to keep giving him something to look at, keep putting the ball in the fairway and keep making good swings for him to feel more of the pressure rather than me. I always wanted it to be me who was doing the pushing.

And I felt like I did that really well. And even at the end when things changed, when he was the one that started pushing and made those birdies on 15 and 16, even at that point the dynamic changed a little bit as well.

As you say, you spent the best part of 60 holes chasing and 12 holes being chased. Did that change the way you approached the back nine at all? It didn’t really change. I still like to stay aggressive, as I showed on 13 and 16. The second I try to play for pars is when I think a big number comes into play, so I always try to stay aggressive whenever I have a lead. If I have a three-shot advantage I’m trying to make it four. If I have four, I try to make it ve. That’s the goal. That’s the intention, just so you can go to 18 and mess up and still have a pretty good chance of winning the tournament. Kind of like I almost did, like Scottie [Sche er] did last year. You want to have as big a lead as you can.

You looked in the zone all week at Augusta. Did you feel as calm as you looked?

What is going on on the inside is not always re ected on the outside, that’s for sure. But I was calm. I never got frustrated, and I never felt like I wasn’t in control. Obviously, I was nervous and there was tension out there, but for the most part I managed to keep everything in check.

Although Seve and José’s achievements are well documented at Augusta, as a Spanish player how much belief did Sergio’s win in 2017 give you, given that you were there to witness it in what was your rst Masters?

I think having all those three of those players having won this tournament gives any Spanish player a feeling like they have a connection with it. I played pretty well in 2017, in fact I’ve played well every time I’ve been here, but it was when Sergio won that I got the feeling that I could do well here. There’s got to be something about having a Spanish passport, I don’t know, there’s something about the grounds at Augusta that transmits into all of us [Spaniards].

Did you sense that the fans were more behind you than in past years?

Not throughout the entire round, because obviously early on there was a lot of options, and Brooks was in the lead and the people supporting Brooks made themselves known. But I think it was around my birdie on 8 when I took a twostroke lead is when things turned a little bit. Even with that bogey on 9, the support was pretty incredible all throughout, and I kept hearing, “Seve! Seve! Seve! Do it for Seve!” I that heard that the entire back nine. That might have been the hardest thing to control – the emotion of knowing what it could be if I were to win; that might have been the hardest thing.

Can you just describe what you were thinking as you reached for a provisional ball on the 72nd hole?

Nothing bad really. I had a four-shot lead, so I was con dent with that. But I think that was karma. I was just telling Adam [my caddie] how great I hit a low fade the entire week. I the fairway all four days on 17, which I’ve never done before, and I was bragging about it a little bit, and, of course, on 18, that happens, right, which was maybe two feet from missing that tree. But it will be a good story in the future, I guess. I won the Masters and didn’t even make it to the fairway with my drive on the nal hole!

That bogey on 9, timing-wise, was bad because Jordan [Spieth] and Phil [Mickelson] were both making birdies and on a bit of a charge, so there was a chance that my lead could disappear very quickly. That made the holes around Amen Corner much harder, and I was de nitely nervous out there, but I’m glad that I looked calm and collected. That’s what you strive for, right? You don’t want to panic, and I never panicked. I felt comfortable with my game, and I had a plan to execute, and that’s all I can do.