AUGUSTA, GEORGIA | A year ago, Jon Rahm came to Augusta not only as the defending Masters champion but still caught in the swirl of debate about his controversial move to LIV Golf a few months earlier.
Beyond the nerves that come with hosting the Champions Dinner for the first time, Rahm’s LIV decision had sent a shudder through golf, stiffening the resolve on both sides of the game’s great divide that each had the solution to a problem that hadn’t existed just a few years earlier.
While Scottie Scheffler was solidifying his place atop the game, Rahm adjusted to his new normal, winning twice on LIV, including the season-long individual championship, without drawing much attention to his achievements.
If Rahm privately saw himself as the player whose move might force a resolution, it didn’t turn out that way.
“I would hope it would be something that would help expedite that process. But at the end of the day, I still did what I thought was best for myself,” Rahm said in the Masters interview room last year.
Until Rahm posted a T7 finish at the Open Championship last July, his major season was a bust. He finished T45 at the Masters despite leading the field in greens hit in regulation, he missed the cut at the PGA Championship and withdrew from the U.S. Open because of a foot injury.
This week, Rahm has arrived almost under the radar given the intense attention focused on Scheffler and Rory McIlroy. The questions about a potential reunification of the professional game continue but they have lost their urgency.
“There was a few times [last year] where there was a lot of questions that I didn’t really have an answer to, and I tried to, and I just really didn’t,” Rahm said. “The state of the game and what’s happening. We don’t know. No one knows. We all want a solution, and it’s hard to give one.
“Last year for me was tough because it was the first major after joining LIV and I was also defending, so there was a lot going on that week, a lot of new things, new locker room, having the Champions Dinner. It was a lot to adjust to.”
The vibe was immediately different for Rahm this week. He spent Tuesday playing a practice round with fellow Spaniards Sergio García, José Maria Olazábal and reigning U.S. Amateur champion José Luis Ballester, just three days after Carla Bernat Escuder won the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, becoming the fifth Spaniard to win here.
It has been 45 years since Seve Ballesteros won his first Masters but Rahm carries his spirit with him, particularly at Augusta National.
“I think he set that essence, and it can’t be a coincidence that the last two Spanish players to win it both won it on what would have been Seve’s birthday. There’s definitely something here going on with him and with all of us, and I think it’s something we can all feel,” Rahm said.
Setting aside last year, Rahm has four other top-10 finishes to go with his 2023 victory at Augusta National, and he finds himself in a more comfortable place this April.
“Feeling very good. Not my favorite major season last year, that’s true. Didn’t play great here, didn’t play great at the PGA, and wasn’t even able to tee it up at the U.S. Open. I was very happy to finish up there at the Open on a very challenging week. At least set the tone hopefully for this year, and feel like I’m playing much better golf coming into this week,” Rahm said.
“Never really felt 100 percent comfortable with my game throughout (2024), and that’s possibly why on the bigger stages when it was difficult, like here or the PGA, I didn’t play my best golf.” – Jon Rahm
Rahm was in contention last Sunday in LIV Golf’s event at Trump Doral in Miami until a quadruple bogey on the 17th hole dropped him to a T9 finish. He has still never finished outside the top 10 in a LIV event.
Though he declined to go into specifics, Rahm said he has made swing adjustments that have restored a measure of confidence that was missing last year.
“Never really felt 100 percent comfortable with my game throughout (2024), and that’s possibly why on the bigger stages when it was difficult, like here or the PGA, I didn’t play my best golf,” Rahm said.
Until there is a resolution in the PGA Tour-LIV Golf tug of war, this week is one of four in which all of the top players are together. It is a reminder of what’s gone missing but, more than that, it’s the most anticipated tournament of the year.
For Rahm, who is a forever part of the Masters after his victory two years ago, it’s about a rare opportunity to win a second green jacket. Nothing else matters this week.
“I don’t think you need to do anything to make the Masters any more special than it already is,” Rahm said.