Jon Rahm (-3) has finished the Open Championship with a modest round of 70 strokes. He played under par, but it was insufficient on a day with very good conditions to move closer to the top positions on the leaderboard. He finishes far from victory, his main goal at the start of the week. It hasn’t been Jon’s Open and he knows it. “There are no excuses. If I had to define it in one word, it would be disappointing. I didn’t play well enough to give myself a chance. The first day I played well, the second I missed putts, and on the third and fourth I wasn’t sharp enough,” he explained as a summary.
Obviously, the man of the day, the week, the year, and almost of the decade so far is Scottie Scheffler. Jon Rahm was asked about him and shared some interesting insights. “He has always been very good. The only thing is that at first, he struggled to close tournaments, but since he won the Phoenix Open in 2022, he hasn’t stopped. I already experienced it firsthand in 2021, at the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits. We faced each other in singles, I didn’t play badly, and I had no chance to win. I think that was his turning point,” he explained.
Obviously, right now the benchmark to follow is Scheffler. Jon knows it and is eager to challenge him. “What he has done is very big and very difficult. He has won three-four Majors (he spoke before Scottie finished) in just three years, he won nine tournaments last year… All of that is very difficult, but if he has achieved it, we can all do it. At least, I am optimistic that I can reach Scheffler’s level. Obviously, it’s not easy, but I am optimistic that it can be achieved,” he stated.
Finally, regarding the World Number One, he highlighted an aspect of the game that is not always mentioned. “Right now, he is doing everything well. He is very solid off the tee, hits good shots to the green, and his putting is good… But if I had to highlight something, it’s the good short game he has always had. He has been able to recover from many different places. He has very good hands. Now he has combined the long game, and the mix is very, very good. Mentally, he has also made a very important change to handle things well on the course both when things are going well and when they are not,” he pointed out.
Rahm’s problem in the last three days of this Open Championship is that he hasn’t managed to leave them really close. It’s not that he played badly, but he lacked finesse and precision to give himself more and better birdie opportunities. You can’t expect to make many putts from six to twelve metres. It’s not usual. “What frustrates me the most this week is that my swing sensations were much better than the result indicates. That annoys me. It annoys me not to have played better. Every Major that passes is a missed opportunity,” he stated.
Regarding the balance of the Majors in 2025, Rahm assures that “I had three good ones and one bad. The best was being in the fight again at the PGA,” he concluded.
