The fiery Spaniard birdied the 71st and 72nd holes to produce a one-stroke victory over Louis Oosthuizen in the 2021 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines Golf Course's South Course. Rahm, who carded a final-round 67 to finish at 6-under 278, became the first player from Spain to win any USGA championship, and the first since Tom Watson in 1982 at Pebble Beach to birdie the final two holes in winning the title. The win vaulted Rahm back to the No. 1 spot in the Official World Golf Ranking. He and World Golf Hall of Fame member Seve Ballesteros are the only players from Spain to ascend to the No. 1 spot in the OWGR. Rahm and Torrey Pines continued their love affair. It is the site where he claimed his first PGA Tour title with a dramatic 72nd-hole eagle in 2017 and where he proposed to his college sweetheart, Kelley Cahill. Rahm joined Jack Nicklaus, Johnny Miller and Ken Venturi as players in the post-World War II era to win the U.S. Open after earning low-amateur honors in the same championship. Rahm was the low amateur at Oakmont C.C. in 2016. Rahm then joined fellow Spaniards Ballesteros, Sergio Garcia and Jose Maria Olazabal as a Masters champion with a four-stroke win in 2023 over Phil Mickelson and two-time U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka. The triumph came on what would have been Ballesteros' 66th birthday. Prior to turning professional, Rahm won the 2015 Mark McCormack Medal for being No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. Rahm was a two-time winner of the Ben Hogan Award, given to the best amateur golfer, and he broke Jack Nicklaus' 72-hole scoring mark in the 2014 World Amateur Team Championship in Japan, shooting 263. Nicklaus had owned the record for 54 years. At Arizona State, Rahm won 11 tournaments, including the 2016 Pacific-12 Conference title. He now owns 22 worldwide professional victories (11 on the PGA Tour) and he has represented Europe three times in the Ryder Cup, including the winning side in 2018 and 2023.
