Boyette: Patient Jon Rahm right where he needs to be

In years past, Jon Rahm might not have reacted so well to a bogey on a par 5. His emotions would have gotten the better of him.

The Spaniard had a dream start Thursday at Augusta National, making birdies on Nos. 3 and 4. He dropped a shot on the revamped No. 5, then 3-putted No. 8 for another bogey.

Instead of imploding, Rahm bounced back with a birdie at No. 9. He played the incoming nine in 2-under and is tied for sixth after the first round of the Masters Tournament.

“I think that the most important thing is I never lost patience,” Rahm said. “I was 1-over par on the par 5s going to the back nine where it’s easy to get a little frustrated and I didn’t. I kept my cool and I was able to make a great birdie on 9 and get where I’m going.”

Rahm was a popular pick going into the week, and ESPN analyst Andy North gushed about his future on a recent conference call.

“Jon Rahm to me just looks like he’s going to have a really good future, and he’s so strong and as he matures, I think his game will also mature a little bit,” North said. “He gets a little excited with himself sometimes and I think he can hurt himself, but those are all things that you go through. We forget still how young he is.”

This is only his third Masters, but the 24-year-old Rahm said he is very comfortable at Augusta National. He made the cut in his 2017 debut, the year his countryman Sergio Garcia won his first major at the Masters.

Last year, an opening 75 put Rahm too far behind eventual winner Patrick Reed. But Rahm shot 68-65-69 to finish solo fourth, and Thursday was his fourth consecutive round in the 60s at the Masters.

“I would think that was an amazing feat,” Rahm said. “And I’m really confident out there.”

Rahm said he didn’t have his best stuff, which should be a warning sign to the rest of the field. He played the par-5s in even Thursday.

“I was a little shaky with the driver, I was able to keep it in the fairway for the better part today,” Rahm said. “My iron play also didn’t feel the best, but again I was able to manage it and hit some quality shots out there.”

At one point Rahm was part of a nine-way tie for first. But the afternoon wave, when the wind died down, put on a show as the shadows began to settle over Augusta National and five players surged past him.

Rahm is learning that to play well at Augusta, you must stay patient. This golf course gives, and it takes.

Photos: 2019 Masters Round 1

“I mean, I hit two great shots on 2, I was in the right bunker not the best lie, with a really hard up and down,” Rahm said. “I really hit like four good shots in a row and I made par. That’s just how it is. That’s just how Augusta National works. it’s very, very difficult.”

Growing up in Barrika, Spain, Rahm learned to play with a creativity that is reminiscent of the late, great Seve Ballesteros. At Augusta National, he can use it to his advantage.

“I think you’re limited only by your own imagination,” he told ESPN following his round. “That’s the beauty of it. I’m really comfortable because I grew up on a golf course with a lot of hills, not one flat lie, not one flat putt. You use that creativity, different ways to play, and that’s fun for me.”

Case in point was his birdie at the 11th. From a pine straw lie, his second shot from 176 yards wound up left of the hole. Rahm drained the 34-foot birdie putt.

Ballesteros would have approved; Ben Hogan, who famously played to the right of the green, would have not.

“I must be the only person in history to hit it left of the pin on that green from the pine straw,” he said in his TV interview. “That’s why I’m laughing.”

Rahm was in the same group with Tiger Woods and Haotong Li. They were right in front of Rory McIlroy, perhaps the second-biggest draw of the morning wave. But he handled the large galleries, and  even nipped Woods by one.

“I heard Tiger say once before any time you start the first round under par in a major, take it,” he said. “This is a lot more than I could have hoped for.”