Focus and chill: Rahm’s strong run of results in recent months is a consequence of a more relaxed approach to putting. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
Aiming high: After last year’s disappointment at the Majors — he failed to register a single top-10 finish — Rahm is determined to make the most of his form in the big events in 2023. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
Jon Rahm is playing like the best golfer in the world and dressing like one of the greatest of all time. The 2021 U.S. Open champion won the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii last weekend with a comeback for the ages, overhauling Collin Morikawa’s seven-shot lead in the final round. And he did it in red and black, Tiger Woods’ combination for title-chasing Sundays.
While the quality of Rahm’s play isn’t an accident, his sartorial choice in Hawaii was. He had forgotten to carry all of his belts, which forced him into a last-minute wardrobe change; it made such an impression that after the triumph, he spent more time talking about his approach to picking an outfit than about his approach shots to the green.
“I usually don’t want to wear anything that’s close to red with black on Sundays because of Tiger. That’s his outfit,” said Rahm. “That’s why I usually wear grey or navy. But you want to know the honest truth? I forgot almost all the belts I was supposed to bring.
“So I had a navy belt and a black belt. And I told [wife] Kelley, ‘I’m not about to be as hot as hell all week wearing black pants and darker shirts, so navy it is.’ Then I went to Sunday and just didn’t want to wear navy anymore. I forgot my belts, that’s all it is.”
Rahm certainly delivered a performance that lived up to the famous combination, flipping the tables during a wild hour on the Plantation Course at Kapalua on Sunday while Morikawa imploded. Although it was a victory even Rahm never saw coming, it was a statement triumph.
Hot streak
It continued his red-hot streak of form: the Spaniard now has three victories worldwide from his last five tournaments. Having also won the Spanish Open and DP World Tour Championship, the former World No. 1 was hoping to climb up the rankings, at least move past Patrick Cantlay into fourth spot. But he still sits in fifth place.
After describing the revamped world rankings system as “laughable” last year when priority was placed on field-depth rather than the ranks of the players involved, Rahm, who believes he is currently the “best player in the world”, questioned the system again.
“Had they not changed the world ranking points [system], I would have been pretty damn close [to No. 1] right now,” he said. “But in my mind, I feel like since August I’ve been the best player in the world. Earlier in the year, clearly Scottie [Scheffler] was that player, then Rory [McIlroy] was that player, and I feel like right now it’s me.”
McIlroy remains at the top of the rankings followed by Masters champion Scheffler, Open winner Cameron Smith and Cantlay. But Rahm’s performances suggest that he is primed to add to his trophy case — especially the big ones to go along with his lone Major title, the U.S. Open at oceanside Torrey Pines two years ago.
He was most disappointed in failing to register a top 10 in any of the Majors in 2022. But since last August, with the start of the PGA Tour’s postseason, Rahm has played nine times around the world and finished out of the top 10 only once. The win in Hawaii means he now has a title in each of his seven full years on tour, an excellent record for someone who is still only 28.
Early promise
Born in the small coastal town of Barrika in Spain, Rahm showed such early promise that he attended Arizona State University on a golf scholarship and became World Amateur No. 1 in 2015. Not everyone recognised his potential, however.
His future wife Kelley, who played tennis as a junior and threw the javelin at Arizona State, didn’t think Rahm was much good with the clubs. “I thought he was very far down on the team, like one of the worst players,” she said. “He never talked about golf. His roommates were always talking about how they finished. I just thought they were all better than him.”
By the time Kelley showed up at her first golf tournament, Rahm had already won the Ben Hogan Award as the best college player in the USA, but she didn’t know it! She arrived with a girlfriend of another Arizona State player and asked the mother of a UCLA player for directions.
“We were like, ‘We’re looking for two people, my friend’s boyfriend and the other is, well, you won’t know him, but his name is Jon Rahm,’” Kelley said. “She’s like, ‘Honey, he’s very good. He might win the tournament.’”
Rahm tied for fourth that week and it wasn’t long before Kelley figured out that her eventual husband, who became the first player to win a second Ben Hogan Award in 2016, was indeed very good. His tally of 11 college tournament wins is second only to Phil Mickelson’s 16.
Rahm announced himself on the world stage in 2020, becoming the first Spaniard since Seve Ballesteros in 1989 to hold golf’s top ranking, winning the U.S. PGA Memorial tournament. But he is now a significantly better player than when he was No. 1.
Curing a flatstick funk
There were questions about his short game, one writer even describing Rahm’s putting problems as a “flatstick funk” in March 2022. But Rahm has answered those questions since.
“If you look at numbers, I think the main difference is I have been a bit more accurate on my approach shots but mainly making putts,” he said. “I got a lot more comfortable with my putting. It’s about as good as it’s ever been.
“Sometimes when you’re working on something and it’s not working properly, I can put too much attention to it and I can be thinking too much on what’s going on with the putter, [but what has worked is] relaxing and getting out of being too technical and getting more into putting as an art.”
Hugely competitive and strong under pressure, Rahm has the potential to cash in over the next few years at the Majors, but he is focused on the present. “We all want to break a lot of records, but you have to take it week by week,” he said. “What I can say is I’m going to try my absolute hardest every day of the year to be the best golfer I can be. And that’s all I can do, period.”
