Rahm on a mission to win
Just days after his 20th birthday, Jon Rahm made his PGA Tour debut as an amateur at the 2014 World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba and missed the cut. He said he owes that experience to the resort’s owner, who shares Rahm’s Spanish roots, and despite not living up to his high expectations, it provided an important learning experience.
“I didn’t have my best showing,” he recalled during a press conference ahead of the Mexico Open at Vidanta. “Unfortunate that I got a penalty stroke on my ninth hole Friday, only time in my life where I made a practice swing chipping and the ball moved and I think that cost me, ended up missing by one or two. Since then I came back and played good golf, but that start gave me so much info and so much to learn from the next time I played, which was the next February in Phoenix, I ended up finishing fifth, right, so I took a lot from it.”
Indeed, he did. Rahm became the first amateur to finish in the top five in a PGA Tour event (the 2015 WM Phoenix Open) in seven years. This week, Rahm, now 27, returns to Mexico’s Pacific Coast and the resort town of Puerto Vallarta with its white sandy beaches to play a Greg Norman-designed par-71 layout that measures 7,456 yards.
Rahm has grown into a world-beater, a player whose game travels and fits any style of course. What the world No. 2 – and top-ranked player in this week’s field – hasn’t done of late is hoist a trophy. He’s winless since the U.S. Open last June, a span of 17 tournaments worldwide. For most mere mortals that would hardly constitute a victory drought, but for Rahm, who counts six Tour titles among his 12 worldwide wins to his name since 2017, his lips are parched. He has been winning at a clip of approximately once every 11 times he tees it up.
Rahm is making his 11th start of the season and first since the Masters, where he finished T-27. He has four top-10 finishes this season, but none in his last four stroke-play events. But to hear Rahm tell it, he is none too concerned and expressed confidence that his best golf is still to come this season.
“Actually, golf is like life,” he said. “Sometimes you just don’t get the results you want. I keep putting in the work, so very positive about the future. I’m happy with where the state of my game’s at right now.”
And why shouldn’t he be? Rahm ranks first in strokes gained: off-the-tee (plus 1.30 per round), first in greens in regulation (73.5%) and second in SG: teeto-green (plus 1.69 per round) this season. But his short game has kept him out of the winner’s circle: He ranks 173rd in SG: around-the-green and 132nd in SG: putting, a dip of 90 spots from last season.
Another person who isn’t too worried about Rahm’s recent performance is Tour veteran Pat Perez, who said on the Golf Subpar podcast, “I think Jon Rahm is the guy (to beat) for the next 10 years. … He hasn’t even started to get going yet.”
Perez, who plays practice rounds at home with Rahm at Silverleaf Country Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, predicted Rahm would win between eight to 10 majors during his career, but that total, which would put him between fourth and sixth on the all-time majors list in golf, would be a far cry from Rahm’s lofty goal of surpassing Jack Nicklaus, who leads with 18.
“I’m not done until I win 19 majors,” Rahm told Perez.
“He doesn’t want to lose. Michael Jordan didn’t want to lose. Tom Brady didn’t want to lose. Tiger Woods didn’t want to lose,” Perez said. “That’s the way their mindset is. I see that in Jon more than anybody.”
That mindset was on full display when Rahm was asked what advice would he give to the up-and-coming Mexican players being given a shot to play in a PGA Tour event this week?
“I always give the same and, you know, there’s no trick: You have to go out there and try to win,” he said. “Don’t come trying to make the cut. If you’re playing, play to win. If not, don’t play. I think that is the mindset they should have. If they’re invited, they’re probably good enough to be out here, so just believe what you can do and try to win.”