CHARLOTTE — Spain’s Jon Rahm views experience as important when assessing his chances for this week’s PGA Championship.
Yet in a career dotted with spectacular moments and despite being a regular contender in majors, this is a tournament that largely has escaped his grasp.
“I’m aware it’s been probably the one I haven’t been my best at,” Rahm said Tuesday at Quail Hollow Club. “I think my best finish was Bellerive. I think it’s possibly because of the versatility and variability of this event.”
The tournament begins Thursday, with Rahm in the role of a dark horse at best.
Rahm, a two-time major winner (2021 U.S. Open, 2023 Masters), hasn’t fared well in the PGA Championship. Aside from a tie for fourth place at Missouri’s Bellerive in 2018, a tie for 13th in 2020 and a tie for eighth in 2021, he hasn’t had much success.
He shared 48th place in 2022 and 50th place in 2023 before missing the cut last year at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville.
“It’s this championship that we change venues and drastically change the way we set it up,” Rahm said. “… They’re all drastically different. So it’s quite possibly the difference, which is more about, OK, your game needs to be a very high level as opposed to possibly the other three that you can adjust a little bit more knowing what’s coming.
“At that point, that’s a bit of speculation. I think it’s more coincidence that I haven’t played good.”
And past tournament outings at Quail Hollow might not matter much this week. Rahm expects to encounter new challenges, referring to several changes he has heard about before getting in practice time on the course.
“As difficult as they could set it up for the Wells Fargo Championship in the past, for majors it’s a whole different story,” Rahm said. “I would suspect that it will be a more difficult setup this week.”
Rahm, 30, captured two majors while still in his 20s, so the Grand Slam topic isn’t farfetched. It’s certainly a subject that came to the forefront because of Rory McIlroy’s achievement last month at Augusta.
But for now, it won’t consume the LIV Golf competitor.
“I think obviously it would be a lot more on my mind if I were to win a third different one, kind of like Jordan (Spieth) has been able to do,” he said. “But as in right now, if I ever had a thought, I’ll focus more on quantity of majors rather than which ones obviously, in the sense of let’s say I never achieve it, I’d rather have a situation like Sir Nick Faldo where he has six of two of them instead of having maybe three different ones, if that makes sense.”
While there figures to be plenty of time for Rahm to rack more accomplishments on the biggest golf stages, he also knows time is ticking.
“I can’t believe I’m almost at a decade in majors,” he said. “It goes by fast.”
–Bob Sutton, Field Level Media
