AUGUSTA, GEORGIA | It was past midnight on the Sunday night of his Masters victory last April when Jon Rahm found himself in the clubhouse with his wife, Kelley, and his father, Edorta.
The cheers had died in the darkness, the interviews were complete and the private reception with members had ended.
Wearing his new green jacket and feeling emboldened by the moment, Rahm asked if he could take his family into the Champions Locker Room upstairs in the clubhouse. They might never have another chance, Rahm knew.
He didn’t yet have his name on a locker but, in the heart of the night, Rahm took them with him into the room – open to past winners but not typically to club members – which he now shares with many of the game’s legendary players.
They looked at the names on the lockers. Nicklaus. Woods. Faldo.
They saw the display devoted to Scottie Scheffler, the defending champion last year, and they snapped some photos.
It’s a relatively small room with a couple of tables and a veranda on the front side of the clubhouse, looking down the club’s famous entrance.
“My dad and I walked out to the balcony looking down Magnolia Lane, what you could see in the pitch darkness. They actually had one of the coolest pictures I have,” Rahm said.
“I didn’t realize the camera was up there, and somebody from the corner took a picture of my dad and I talking, me with the jacket on, out on the balcony, and it’s one of the better pictures we have.”
In a sport filled with players who go about their business in an almost robotic manner … Rahm wraps that part of his profession with a smoldering intensity that is as much a part of him as his dark beard and ferocious swing.
For all of Rahm’s physical proficiency – it has earned him two major championships and persuaded LIV Golf to offer him a nine-figure contract to leave the PGA Tour late last year – it’s his passion that may define him in equal measure.
In a sport filled with players who go about their business in an almost robotic manner, checking practice-day boxes and coloring carefully within their own special lines, Rahm wraps that part of his profession with a smoldering intensity that is as much a part of him as his dark beard and ferocious swing.
Some of it springs from his Spanish heritage, which he proudly wears like a logo. Joining Seve Ballesteros, José María Olazábal and Sergio García as Spanish Masters champions is a point of pride, and he will be speaking directly to two of them – Olazábal and García – when he hosts the Champions Dinner tonight.
Rahm has talked about the dinner in detail, its ties to his culinary roots and the help he’s received from chef José Andrés in bringing it together. The thought of hosting it came into his mind on Sunday night a year ago, and exactly what he says as host when he speaks to Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson, Fred Couples, Adam Scott and others will come from the heart rather than a script.
“When I tell you that this has definitely been rent free in my head – I usually have no issues public speaking,” Rahm said. “No problem. I’ll get up there and talk about anything.
“Just the image of standing up and having everybody in that room look at me and having to speak to all these great champions, it’s quite daunting. I’ve never been one to prepare, so I’m going to go with whatever comes to mind at the moment. That’s all I can say.
“I don’t know exactly what I’m going to say, but hopefully one or two glasses of wine help me get a little bit more fluid in that speech.”
Any potential awkwardness regarding the fissure created by the PGA Tour-LIV Golf tug of war isn’t likely to seep into the Champions Dinner. This is LIV’s third year and, until something changes, this is the landscape of professional golf.
Rahm’s surprising move in December rang like a cannon shot across the sport. When the PGA Tour rolled through several of his favorite stops earlier this year – Palm Springs, Phoenix, Los Angeles – Rahm felt the tug of what he was missing.
Though he hasn’t won in five LIV starts, Rahm has not finished lower than eighth in individual play. His Legion XIII team has won twice, including last week in Miami where he gave a late fist pump after helping seal the team win.
“I’ve had a lot of fun playing in those events. The competition’s still there. Yeah, they’re smaller fields, but you still have to beat some of the best players in the world and you still have to play at the same level you have to play on the PGA Tour to win those events. So that doesn’t change,” Rahm said Tuesday morning.
Rahm is one of 13 LIV players in the field this week, and he’s in the Masters in perpetuity as a past champion. The number of LIV players in majors going forward likely will decline because of their falling world ranking and as some existing exemptions run out.
“There’s a lot of people a lot smarter than me that could figure this out in a much more efficient way. But the obvious answer is that there’s got to be a way for certain players in whatever tour to be able to earn their way in.” – Jon Rahm
This is one of four weeks when the best from both tours are playing together, heightening the focus on what’s been lost in the game’s current state.
Rahm believes there is a way to fix that, but he will leave it to others to figure it out.
“I’m going to say what I’ve said: There’s a lot of people a lot smarter than me that could figure this out in a much more efficient way. But the obvious answer is that there’s got to be a way for certain players in whatever tour to be able to earn their way in,” Rahm said. “That’s the only thing can I say. I don’t know what that looks like. But there’s got to be a fair way for everybody to compete.”
For a year, Rahm kept his green jacket in the closet of his Arizona home where he could see it every day. He would occasionally slip it on and he wore it out to a few events, including throwing out the first pitch in a World Series game last year.
Following protocol, Rahm’s green jacket will remain at the club going forward, unless he wins another one.
“It is a weird feeling, right. Essentially, it’s the only trophy you can’t really keep at home. You do get a trophy, but the one that we all care about is the jacket,” Rahm said.
“I think it’s something really special to know, when you win, that the only jacket that ever leaves Augusta National is that one. I think that’s the most special part of all.”