We travel back in time 29 days. We find ourselves on the 14th of April. Sunday. Masters Sunday, to be precise. Jon Rahm leaves Augusta after signing off with a final card of 69 strokes, the best of the week. He finished in 14th place. It’s not a disaster, but it’s far, very far, from his expectations. He has now gone five consecutive Majors without a chance of victory on the final day, including the US Open at Pinehurst, which he didn’t play due to a toe infection. A long time. An eternity. Well, as he leaves Augusta, he tells one of the closest people in his circle: “I feel like I’m about to win a Major again.”
Rahm arrives at the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, and the signs surrounding him are not the best. We’ve already talked about his streak in the majors, to which we can add that the PGA is the Major that has been the worst for him in the last ten years, the only one where he hasn’t finished first or second and where he has never achieved a top 3. Additionally, things haven’t gone well for him at Quail Hollow. He has played twice at the Charlotte course. In the 2017 PGA, he made the cut but finished very low, and in the 2021 Wells Fargo Championship, he missed the cut. We add one more sign. His season so far hasn’t been spectacular. Yes, he hasn’t dropped out of the top 10 in LIV Golf, but really, except for the first tournament in Saudi Arabia, he hasn’t truly been in contention to win, and at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, he missed the cut.
Well, despite everything, “something big is coming.” That’s what Rahm told the Spanish journalists in North Carolina today. He feels it. It’s what his body tells him. His poor results at Quail Hollow don’t undermine him because he likes the course. He has the conviction that he can do very well on this property. He doesn’t look at George Cobb’s design with suspicion, the same one who advised on the construction of Augusta’s par 3s, but rather with surprise, with the certainty of “I’ll get you.”
Regarding doubts with the swing, it can’t be said that they have completely disappeared. He assures that he hit the ball very poorly in his last LIV Golf tournament in South Korea. “I just put it in play because I wasn’t feeling right,” he assures. In fact, since finishing in Incheon until this Monday, he has been working with Dave Phillips to try to fix those bad sensations. He doesn’t convey concern. “If I have to say something I’m focusing on more, it would be getting rid of some bad swing habits. But I’m seeing the progress and how it’s improving every day. If I have to pay more attention to something, it would be the swing — although not much. Dave always says he has to find about 40 different ways to tell me the same three things about my swing because I tend to be quite consistent. Sometimes it’s just about hearing or feeling something differently to achieve the same thing,” he assures.
In the end, it’s all about confidence. Rahm is not only convinced that he can win a Major any week, but he is also convinced that he can win even without playing his best golf. That says a lot. That overwhelming personality allows him to have the conviction on a Tuesday that something big is coming, despite the signs not being the best.
Certainly, it won’t be for lack of motivation. He has plenty. “I still want to be the best player in the world. I don’t want it to sound arrogant, although Basques always sound a bit arrogant, but it’s the truth. It’s what I want to be. And I know that this week the Spanish grand slam could be completed (the Masters, US Open, and Open have already been won, and only the PGA is missing) and that it would be the first to win three since Seve. All of that excites me,” he notes.
In terms of confidence and motivation, few, if any, can beat the man from Barrika. That’s why something big is coming. Let it be so.
