By Joel Beall
Welcome to the Dew Sweeper, your one-stop shop to catch up on the weekend action from the golf world. From the professional tours, trending news, social media headlines and upcoming events, here’s every golf-related thing you need to know for the morning of April 16.

Kodaira takes down Kim

Satoshi Kodaira is a name unknown to most fans. He entered last week ranked inside the top 50 in the world, yet had just 14 career appearances on the PGA Tour, his best finish a T-28. However, even if you missed Sunday’s tape-delayed action from Hilton Head, Kodaira won’t be a stranger for long. The 28-year-old from Japan overcame a five-shot deficit to earn his way into a playoff, where he defeated Si Woo Kim to capture the RBC Heritage.

Kodaira started his day with three straight birdies, adding four more throughout his round. His surge, coupled with Kim’s stumble down the stretch and Ian Poulter’s back-nine 40, earned Kodaira a spot in sudden death (the 10th playoff on the tour this season). On the third playoff hole, Kodaira dropped a 25-foot birdie on the par-3 17th to claim victory.

“I didn’t think it would come this quickly,” Kodaira said. “I was nervous going into the playoff. But I’m very very happy to make that putt.”

The win earns him a two-year tour exemption and invites to the Players Championship, PGA Championship and next year’s Masters. With an OWGR points boost, Kodaira will also earn entry to the U.S. Open.

Sam Greenwood

Friday the 13th strikes Kraft

Every golfer has a story of misfortune. Good luck topping Kelly Kraft’s bad break.

During the second round of the Heritage, Kraft’s tee shot on Harbour Town’s par-3 14th tee struck a bird, causing his ball to drop into a water hazard. Kraft walked away with a double bogey. An incident noteworthy in itself, particularly so given Kraft missed the cut by…one shot.

“There was a helping wind, and I hit a 7-iron, caught it perfect,” Kraft said. “It was probably 30 yards off the tee box and this giant, black bird swooped in front of it and hit it and the ball fell 20 yards short in the water. It would’ve been in the middle of the green. It might have been close. I got screwed.”

If you’re wondering why Kraft wasn’t awarded a break—after all, if a ball strikes a power line, a player has to replay the stroke without penalty—chalk it up to the eccentricity of the rules of golf.

“The big difference is a bird is a God-made object,” said PGA Tour rules official Dillard Pruitt. “Whereas a telephone wire is man-made. It’s just a stroke of bad luck. It doesn’t happen very often, but today is Friday the 13th. Freaky Friday.”

Keep this in mind the next time you proclaim your lip-out as the “worst break ever.”

Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images

Rahm keeps on rolling

Patrick Reed’s triumph, Rory McIlroy’s convulsion and charges from Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler grabbed the Sunday headlines at Augusta National. Lost in the madness was Jon Rahm, who quietly posted a fourth-place finish, his first top 10 at a major. The fledgeling superstar continued to show his firepower, this time in his homeland, as Rahm won the Open de España.

Starting the day two back of Paul Dunne, Rahm was tied with countryman Nacho Elvira on the par-3 17th hole at Centro Nacional de Golf. Rahm’s tee shot appeared headed for water but stayed up on a bank, where he was able to get up-and-down. Elvira hit a similar approach but was not as luck, his ball finding a watery grave. Coupled with uneven play from Dunne, it was enough for a Rahm two-shot victory.

“This is hard to describe,” an emotional Rahm said. “The feeling of pride and satisfaction is amazing. This is the hardest Sunday I have ever had to play. Everyone seemed to want me to win. I felt that. And it was hard to deal with. I tried to isolate myself, but I could feel it. So to win here is great.”

It is Rahm’s third European Tour win since July and fifth professional win in the last 16 months. Might want to hop on Rahm’s 18/1 U.S. Open odds while you can.

Harry How

Henderson wins for Humboldt

While wind swept away most of the Lotte Championship field, Brooke Henderson was unruffled. She turned in a final-round 67, one of just three rounds in the 60s on the day, for a four-shot victory in Hawaii.

Of greater note, however, was the meaning behind Henderson’s play, as she dedicated her performance to those involved in the Humboldt Broncos hockey team bus tragedy.

“It’s extremely sad, a terrible tragedy what happened up there,” Henderson said. “I know it kind of affected my whole country. Everybody really took it kind of personally.

“For all the survivors that are still fighting through it and all the ones that have passed away, I want to show them that we’re here for them and we’re supporting them. They’re always going to be in our thoughts and prayers.”

It was the 20-year-old’s sixth career win, two away from tying Sandra Post for most LPGA victories by a Canadian.

SB2K reunites

Golf’s version of the Rat Pack reunited, albeit under slightly different circumstances.

Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler and Smylie Kaufman blew up social media feeds again this weekend. But Birmingham subbed in for Baker’s Bay, as the group was together for Kaufman’s wedding.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bhh7N-PAAWq/?utm_source=ig_embed

Sadly, shirts were (mostly) kept on.

With Kaufman tied down and Spieth recently engaged, the Spring Break endeavours might be coming to a close. Don’t cry that those tank-top, shoeless golf rounds are ending; smile because they happened.

The post Rahm keeps on rolling, Henderson wins for Humboldt, and one of the worst bad breaks you’ll see appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
Yes, the highest-ranked player in the field won, an end result that at first glance suggests an unsurprising mixture of inevitability and predictability. But Jon Rahm’s two-shot victory in the Open de España was, for long enough, far from straightforward. With two holes to play over the Centro Nacional de Golf course in Madrid, the World No. 4 was 19 under par for the week, tied with compatriot Nacho Elvira and two strokes clear of Irishman Paul Dunne, the overnight leader. Barring disasters all round, the destination of the historic trophy—first played for in 1912 and a part of the European Tour since 1972—was down to those three men.

Rahm first. With water running all the way down the left side of the short 17th, the powerful Basque played for his usual fade and aimed a little left of the pin. It didn’t take. The ball pitched on the bank left of the green and hung up in one of the few pieces of long grass bordering the lake. It was a huge piece of luck, one Rahm took advantage of. A deft chip-and-putt saved his par.

Elvira next. The 31-year-old Madrid native, a four-time winner on the second-tier European Challenge Tour, hit a similar shot to Rahm. Crucially, however, it landed maybe two yards further left and disappeared forever. The chip to save par lipped-out, and so did the three-foot putt for bogey.

As for Dunne, the British Masters champion could do no better than par. Suddenly, Rahm had a two-shot advantage over both of his nearest challengers. And when Rahm reduced the 527-yard par-5 final hole to no more than a drive and a short-iron approach en route to a routine birdie, the destination of the €250,000 first-place check was all but decided. As it turned out, Dunne’s closing birdie was enough to clinch second alone. Elvira took three to get down from beyond the final green.

Not surprisingly, Rahm was more than delighted at the close. But mixed with his obvious pleasure was a sense of relief. Followed by vast crowds around the rather bleak-looking municipal venue that had only eight weeks to prepare for an event that was missing from the European Tour schedule last year, the pre-tournament favourite was clearly feeling the pressure to succeed in front of his home fans. His putting on the clearly inconsistent greens betrayed his tension; all week, Rahm struggled on the bumpy surfaces.

Rahm needed a short iron for his second shot to the green on the par-5 18th hole, setting up a routine birdie for the win. (Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)

Still, by the end, all of that was forgotten. Settled by a more than solid beginning to his day (he birdied his first two holes), Rahm immediately closed the two-stroke gap between himself and Dunne. Only once, at the short ninth, did he drop a shot in his closing five-under 67.

“This is hard to describe,” said a clearly emotional Rahm. “The feeling of pride and satisfaction is amazing. This is the hardest Sunday I have ever had to play. Everyone seemed to want me to win. I felt that. And it was hard to deal with. I tried to isolate myself, but I could feel it. So to win here is great.

Rahm was not looking to play too aggressively at first on Sunday. “But I hit four perfect shots on the first hole [for a birdie],” he said. “Then I just kept the good play going.

“My putting hasn’t been too great all week. But I gained a lot off the tee, which made up for a lot. There were a lot of key moments today. I chipped in on 10 for birdie, for example. But the three-foot putt on 17 for par was the most important. When I made that putt, I got on the 18th tee and hit my drive as hard as I could. I wanted the shortest club I could into the green. The drives I hit on 13, 15, 16 and 18 were absolute bombs.”

For the record, this was the 23-year-old Rahm’s third European Tour victory and his second national title, following his win in last year’s Irish Open. Fourth alone in last week’s Masters at Augusta National, one suspects he might just scrape his way on to the European Ryder Cup team come September.

The post Jon Rahm handles ‘the hardest Sunday I have ever had to play’ to win Spanish Open appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.