From the moment he stepped onto the first tee on his pro debut back in June 2016, a week after finishing T-23 in his last event as an amateur at the US Open, Jon Rahm had “class and talent” written all over him.

Handed an invite to the Quicken Loans by the Tiger Woods Foundation, which handles the PGA Tour event, Rahm justified the faith by almost winning the event on his pro debut — he finished third and his pro career got off to a flying start.

This Sunday, Rahm won the sixth pro career title beating back a star-studded field by four shots on his debut at the Hero World Challenge.

His nearest rival, Tony Finau, who looked like taking it to the wire, stuttered around the turn and then faltered badly with a double bogey on 14 and in Rahm’s words, “That was a killer.”

Finau was left second for the fourth time this year, knocking yet again on the door, which does not seem to be opening but will surely yield soon after an amazing year for the American, who is part-Tongan and part-Samoan by origin.

Finau, for his part, denied Justin Rose a return to the World No. 1 ranking by holing a birdie putt for sole second and Rose was pushed to the third, which was not to wrest the top ranking from the absent Brooks Koepka. Rose needed to be in at least a three-way tie for second.

Henrik Stenson who returned from his elbow troubles, ranked fourth, while the defending champion, Rickie Fowler, shared fifth with Patrick Cantlay, from whom Rahm took over as World No. 1 amateur.

Both Rahm and Cantlay showed further class by donating $500 for every birdie they made this week.

Rahm had 25 and Cantlay 22 for a total of 47, which raised $23,500 for California Strong, which is helping families affected by the California wildfires.

In just over two-and-a-half years, including two full seasons in 2017 and 2018, Rahm, 24, has won six titles, two on the PGA Tour, three on European Tour and now this specially sanctioned PGA Tour event, the Hero World Challenge. After winning the Challenge, Rahm admitted that he grew up watching and learning from Tiger Woods. He said that he loved the history of the game and had watched all videos on YouTube about golf, Seve (Ballesteros) and Woods.

He said, “I think I’ve seen every video on YouTube about Seve and Tiger. Every shot that’s ever to be seen on the internet, I’ve probably seen it... ”

He added, “If you ever see Kelley (his fiancée), ask her because when we started dating, I still did that. She had no idea about golf and I would make her watch all the highlights of Tiger. I’ve seen Tiger’s final round at Pebble in 2000 about 150 times.”

It was both fun and learning for him. He said, “I also use it as a learning curve because you can learn all these great things that all these great players have done, and use them for yourself. I love the game and it’s great to watch all those things.”

Greatest moment

As a Spaniard, he wears his heart on his sleeve. Beating Woods in the Ryder Cup singles was one of the greatest moments of his career, he said.

Recalling the whole incident and the match, Rahm said, “Then on the last putt right before I hit it, somebody in Spanish yelled, “Do it for Seve,” at the top of his lungs. Knowing how much Seve means to me, having the five-footer to beat Tiger Woods, earning the first full point for the Europeans when it was looking kind of dark, there was a lot going on in my mind.”

He added, “Also, the Sunday of the PGA my grandpa had just passed as soon as I finished. When they mentioned Seve, I knew he would be up there. I know he’s up there with my grandpa telling him everything about golf even though Seve knows a little bit. I got calm and thought, I’m going to make it for them. There’s no way them two are going to allow me to miss this putt.”

He went on saying, as if it was all happening right in from of him all over again: “When I hit it and it went in, I mean, it’s all that feeling, right? I tried to stay as balanced as possible. Making the putt to beat Tiger Woods, my all-time hero, it was hard.”

“And then when I turned around, I had to apologize because I didn’t see he was coming to me and he came to me with a smile. He said — “don’t even worry, you played great, and I started crying in front of Tiger and kind of — it was such an emotional moment.”

And now this Sunday, Rahm round off 2018 with yet another amazing year. It is just titles for now, soon it will be Majors and the World No. 1 ranking. This young man is just 24 but has a lot of class and potential.

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