It was 40 years since his idol Seve Ballesteros won at Augusta National, and the final round was held on what would have been Ballesteros’ 66th birthday. Rahm’s parents fell in love with golf when they watched Ballesteros captain Europe’s Ryder Cup team, and encouraged their son to take up golf. His caddie was the 49th to register this week, and the last round was decided on the ninth of April.

“Pretty much every great-name Spanish player has won here,” said Rahm, joining Ballesteros, Jose Maria Olazabal and Sergio Garcia as green jacket holders. “There’s got to be something here about having a Spanish passport, I don’t know, there’s something about the grounds that transmits into all of us.

“Never thought I was going to cry by winning a golf tournament, but I got very close on that 18th hole. This one was for Seve. He was up there helping, and help he did.”

Rahm, 28, was born in the Basque Country, a fiercely independent and passionate region near the French border. Rahm doesn’t push the line with his passion on course, but he flirts dangerously close to crossing it. He’s unapologetic. While most golfers are known for calm temperaments, Rahm wants to remain the opposite. He once had a six-shot lead in a PGA Tour event after 54 holes, but as he walked off the last green was told he’d tested positive to COVID-19 and had to withdraw. He took the news well.

Yet off it, he’s considered and thoughtful. With the American accent born out of his years in the college system, he switched freely between English and Spanish in his winning press conference. Ten years ago, he tweeted he would win The Masters after a note in a fortune cookie.

“He’s such a good guy,” said Masters runner-up Phil Mickelson, whose brother Tim coached Rahm at college. “He has such a great heart and treats people so well. I think the world of him as a person. And as a player, that’s obvious, how good he is.”

Having started the day as seemingly the PGA Tour’s flagbearer against LIV Golf’s poster boy, Brooks Koepka, Rahm whittled into the margin quickly. It was two by the time they finished putting on seventh hole.

In between the turnaround from the third and fourth rounds, Koepka quickly fronted reporters and was asked about his four-shot cushion being halved with 18 holes to play. A bit of red mist descended.

“Halved? What do you mean ‘halved’? I started yesterday at two [shots ahead]. I’m just spitting facts to you. I don’t know what else to say,” he bristled.

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From that moment, the tournament was Rahm’s to lose.

He was level by the fourth hole, ahead at the sixth and then romped to a four-shot win, which even allowed time for a nervy drive up the 72nd hole which didn’t even reach the fairway.

It was deserved, and not just because of the traumatic start to his life. While Koepka (-8) sat out most of the third day’s treacherous weather, Rahm (-12) was in the other wave, wading through cyclonic conditions until course officials eventually showed some mercy.

Told he was possibly on the worst side of the draw, he joked: “Did you say I was perhaps on the bad side of the draw? Perhaps?”

Koepka had a fine tournament, but he was playing a 72-hole grind rather than the 54-hole events he’s become accustomed to.

Until this week, nine of the 11 players who had reached 12-under or better after 36 holes of a men’s major had gone on to win. The two who didn’t? Greg Norman in The Open in 1990 and Masters in 1996.

“I tried,” he said. “Gave it my all, so I can go to sleep at night.”

So, too, will Rahm, a kid born with a defect now entering one of golf’s most exclusive clubs.

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