Jon Rahm would have liked to be 6,975 kilometres away from Trump National Doral this Saturday, the course that hosts the LIV Golf in Miami and where the Barrika native has been playing since Friday.
Specifically, he would have preferred to be in Seville, and more precisely at the Estadio de la Cartuja to watch live as a fan the final of the King’s Cup between Athletic Bilbao and Mallorca. Needless to say, Jon is a true athtleticzale, an absolute fanatic of the Bilbao team, which is seeking its first Cup title in 40 years.
The Spanish golfer has not been lucky. Precisely this year, with a much reduced calendar in the Saudi league, fate has wanted the final to coincide with a tournament. If he had been on the PGA Tour, he would have had the possibility to choose whether or not to participate in the tournament, but we already know that in LIV golfers are contractually obliged to play all tournaments, except for medical reasons, of course.
So, when the ball starts rolling in Seville, ten o’clock in the evening peninsular time, Jon will be playing the second round of the LIV in Miami. Specifically, he will have already played the first nine holes and will be around the 13th or 14th of his round. What is his plan? Has he asked to be told the score of the match during the round? Has he ordered that no one tell him anything, technological blackout and watch the match from the first minute once he signs the card?
Well, according to what Ten Golf has been able to find out, Jon is not one of those who likes to watch the match in delay, even if he does not know the result, so that option is ruled out. He also does not want to be bombarded with information during the tournament. He wants to be focused on the game, on the competition and not distracted by the progress of the duel between Athletic and Mallorca.
In this way, Jon’s plan is to finish the second round of the LIV as soon as he can, which will be approximately at 11:45 at night, Spanish local time, minute up, minute down, and quickly look for a television (already scheduled) to try to watch the end of the match, the last minutes, we will see if with the duel resolved or still in the air. In the event of extra time and penalties, Rahm could practically watch this part of the match in its entirety, although he would probably prefer it to end in regular time and with a victory for Athletic and thus not suffer.
This will be the sixth Cup final that Athletic Bilbao has played since Rahm was born in 1994. The lions played it in 2009, 2012, 2015, 2020 and 2021. On all those occasions they were runners-up, on four occasions they fell against Barcelona and the other, the most painful, against Real Sociedad. We will see if Jon can celebrate his first Athletic Cup title.
