2 weeks Ago By The Telegraph
Jon Rahm hits out of a bunker on the 17th green during Saturday’s third roundSo, with the three birdies in his first three holes, maybe Jon Rahm can still do the occasional notable thing in this major malarkey and maybe those who are writing him off as a force might have gone a tad early in their assessment that joining LIV Golf has removed his big-stage superpowers.The argument goes that since Rahm signed up for his £350 million Saudi bounty 18 months ago he has not contended in any of the big four.Fair enough, but let us look more closely at his results sheet in this regard.
Rahm missed last year’s US Open with an infected foot and followed that up the next month with seventh at The Open (which in a field of 156 is not too shabby).So coming in here, 24 months from his Green-Jacketed glory, the 30-year-old had in fact blown out in two majors since he switched sides – a tie for 45th at last year’s Masters and a missed cut in the USPGA Championship. For his critics – one of whom accused him the other day of “knowing the ramifications of his choice” – the opening two rounds seemed manna sent.
A first-round 75, a second 71...
a place among the early starters on Saturday for those who only just made the cut.Nobody comes back from 10 shots off the lead at the halfway point at the Masters and even his electrifying beginning in the third round would hardly have had his detractors running into the pine straw for cover. And with good reason.
His eventual 70 was not nearly enough to thrust him into any sort of final-round contention.But for those of us who do not believe that a few tournaments grant licence to pen a hit-piece, those opening 10 shots were at least a wondrous reminder of his form in 2023 when he was undoubtedly a member of the burgeoning “Big Three” alongside Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy.He holed an 18-footer on the first, chipped up 10 feet on the second and holed from 20 feet on the third.
2023 Masters champion Jon Rahm begins his third round with three birdies in a row. #themasterspic.twitter.
com/CwSYz1zIEj— The Masters (@TheMasters) April 12, 2025It was exactly what he had come to expect, ever since he burst from college to win events almost immediately and made his Ryder Cup debut in Paris in 2018, not even two years removed from education. Rahm contended every time he teed it up.Except did he? Not in 2022.
.. well not in the majors anyway.
It is surely merely inconvenient to look at that decidedly average season when rushing to the judgment that LIV has emptied his competitive spirit.The year after Rahm had made his breakthrough at the US Open at Winged Foot – and finished fifth at the Masters, eighth at the USPGA and third at the Open at Sandwich – he did not record a single top 10 in the majors. In fact, there was only one top 25, a 12th at Brookline, sandwiched in between a tie for 27th at Augusta, a tie for 48th at Southern Hills and a tie for 38th at St Andrews.
He was asked what the problem was and he did not really have an answer. He does not know, to be honest. It is just that other people have the answer.
And, predictably, it involves a life decision that they insist has worked against him and his sporting psyche. That is where the “ramifications” come in.In Joel Bell’s recent book Playing Dirty, the author reports that before Rahm left the PGA Tour, he “harboured a deep-seated belief that the Tour had failed to properly showcase his talents, while players he considered his inferiors wielded disproportionate influence over the organisation’s future”.
That is perhaps true and there must be something to the notion that Rahm, as McIlroy intimated at the time, believed that his defection would force the Tour to reach a peace deal with the Saudis.After all, when he jumped, the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund and the Tour were supposedly negotiating a settlement after announcing their “framework agreement” in the summer of 2023. Rahm was just cashing in before the chips were divvied up.
Yet despite Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the PIF governor and chairman of LIV, being invited here this week to mix with the game’s prime movers and shakers, nothing continues to happen on that score and, just like every expert in this sport, Rahm cannot envisage an end date to the frustrating horse-trading.“I mean, I think we all would like to see that,” Rahm said here on Tuesday. “But as far as I can tell, and you guys can tell, it’s not happening anytime soon.
”Rahm received a reported £350 million fee to join LIV Golf - Getty Images /Harry HowSo he can only continue to play on LIV, the league on which he won the individual title last year and on which he has never failed to post a top 10, and turn up at the majors and explain why he is not as good now as we all thought he was back then and basically couch the question if he has buyer’s remorse?Yet Rahm might simply be suffering with his swing, in the same vein as three years ago. A quick conversation with the Spaniard last week at LIV Miami, certainly suggested that it is his conviction.“I’ve been able to have a lot of good finishes, but I would say it hasn’t been what I would consider playing my best,” he said.
“I think I’ve scored really, really well but with some level of discomfort in some parts of my game that I kind of need to get over to accomplish bigger things, right, especially talking about major championships.“I think I’m very close to that. But either way, I’m always just absolutely blindly confident in my abilities and I’m looking forward to seeing the improvements because of the changes that I’ve made for the better part of a year and a half.
”Rahm could not continue his startling Saturday morning pace, with a bogey at the fifth stalling the momentum. There were further birdies at the eighth, 14th and 16th, but two closing bogeys that sum up his present state of mind. By then, all the fireworks had been provided by playing partner Zach Johnson, the former US Ryder Cup captain.
Johnson, in his 49th year, shot a 66 to reach four-under and Rahm in his prime, a 70 to advance to level par. That is golf. Odd things happen.
As do strange dips and blips. And some might be mindful of that when it comes to Rahm and the premature demotion of a heavyweight.Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism.
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