Jon Rahm doesn’t have time to stop and smell the azaleas as he heads into the first major of the season this week at the Masters.
The 2023 champion and two-time major winner was asked Tuesday about whether he appreciates the beauty of the prestigious Augusta National Golf Club.
“Definitely not caught up on the flowers or the beauty of the golf course or anything like that. It’s just focus ahead, and hopefully you can enjoy the walk up 18,” the 30-year-old Spaniard said. “The time to think about all of that is today and tomorrow. That’s when you’re thinking, OK, look at the flowers, look at this, look at that, the atmosphere and everything, and you see how special this property truly is.”
Rahm had a rough year in the majors in 2024, following up his green jacket with a T45 in Augusta, Ga. He missed the cut at the PGA Championship, withdrew from the U.S. Open with a foot infection and salvaged a T7 at the Open Championship with a Sunday round of 68.
“Not my favorite major season last year, that’s true,” Rahm said. “… 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 I feel like I’m playing much better golf coming into this week.”
He is enjoying a strong second season on the LIV Golf circuit, posting top-10 finishes in each of the first five events with a T9 last week at Trump National Doral in Miami.
“Playing at Doral last week was extremely challenging,” Rahm said. “It was definitely one of the hardest setups I’ve played. And besides one bad score on 17 on Sunday, which was actually one of the better swings of the week that led to a very bad number, I feel really good.
“I feel like I played better than obviously the score reflects, but at the end of the day, it’s golf. Feeling really, really good about this year in general.”
Rahm is not feeling quite as optimistic about the ongoing merger discussions between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.
“I mean, I think we all would like to see that. But as far as I can tell and you guys can tell, it’s not happening anytime soon,” he said. “I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about that, especially having a week like this one. I think all of our concerns should be on this week, and things outside of that we can let ourselves think about outside this week.”
–Field Level Media
