The Bolingbrook Golf Club, southwest of the heart of Chicago, will host this week’s penultimate individual ranking tournament of the 2025 LIV Golf season from Friday to Sunday. An event that will also be the penultimate opportunity for Spaniard Jon Rahm to avoid something that has only happened once since he turned professional: going an entire year without winning a single tournament. An unusual circumstance for a golfer like the Spaniard, accustomed to lifting trophies since he was a child, during his amateur days and later when he made the leap to the elite.
Only between the Masters Tournament of 2023 and the LIV Golf in UK of 2024 did the champion from Barrika go more than 365 days without adding a victory to his spectacular record. It is true that during that time he experienced a circuit change, leaving behind his time on the PGA Tour to compete in the Saudi tour with a superstar contract. But since that victory at Augusta National, Jon has not won any of the 25 events counting towards the world ranking in which he has competed (tournaments of the DP World Tour and majors) and has only achieved two trophies in LIV Golf.
The first was the aforementioned LIV Golf in UK, in July of last year, which ended a 476-day drought. The second, the LIV Golf in Chicago, an event he returns to this week following his sensational victory last season at the same venue, the Bolingbrook Golf Club, with a three-stroke lead over fellow Spaniard Sergio García and Chilean Joaquín Niemann. An excellent opportunity to end the trophy drought and try to reach next week’s event in Indy with a chance to challenge Joaco for the circuit’s order of merit victory.
“The only thing left for me to do this year is win, and to have a real chance of defending the title, the first thing is to win here”
Niemann, with 206.80 points, is well on his way to securing the final LIV Golf title of 2025. But victories add 40 points, and Jon is relatively close, with 169.16 points, before this penultimate individual tournament of the season. The Spaniard discussed all this and much more at the official press conference he held this Wednesday in Chicago, after a year in which things have not gone as expected in the Majors and in which he hopes to deliver his best performance in this final stretch of the Saudi tour, in the Ryder, and in his autumn appearances in the DP.
For the man from Barrika, thinking about the overall standings and, why not, also about that winless streak, everything this week in Chicago depends on winning: “I don’t think my mindset is any secret. Joaquín is playing very well, as are many other players who are also behind me in the standings. The only thing left for me to do this year is win, and I think to have a real chance of defending the title, the first thing is to win here, obviously combined with Joaquín not having a great week. Without a doubt, I need it to arrive next week with real options and, hopefully, face him again in the final event.”
“Luke is a very dedicated and organised captain, probably there are at least ten names besides those already qualified to whom he is constantly sending messages”
For Jon, it is somewhat surprising to still have a chance to win the circuit’s overall standings in a year without partial victories: “Yes. I think it was after Valderrama, when I finished second and he didn’t have a great week, when I looked and was only 16 points behind, it was one of those moments when the maths didn’t quite add up. But I suppose that afterwards, someone told me, I think it was yesterday, that in the weeks he hasn’t won, he hasn’t been at his best and hasn’t scored many points, so that’s where, by maintaining my consistency, I’ve had the opportunity to stay somewhat close. If I can win this week and he doesn’t have a great week, I think next week is going to be very exciting.”
Trying to come out victorious in Chicago and pushing for the overall standings in Indianapolis next week are now Rahm‘s goals. But the man from Barrika hasn’t forgotten about the Ryder Cup next month and is reluctant to confirm whether Luke Donald has already guaranteed him a spot among the chosen ones: “I can’t confirm or deny anything. But I think he’s been sending me messages just like other players who are on the list of potential picks. Luke is a very dedicated and organised captain, so I think since there are six automatic spots and then six picks, there are probably at least ten names besides those already qualified to whom he is constantly sending messages. I don’t think he’s told anyone they’re in yet because it’s too early. He’s probably waiting until the end of August, after the playoffs and our events, to start making those kinds of statements. In my case, I think I’m just one of those many names.”
