AUGUSTA, Ga. — After every year, Jon Rahm likes to hit the reset button. And heading into this major season at the Masters, the Spaniard felt like he needed the reboot more than most.
“I like keeping [goals] fresh instead of just saying I want to win ‘X’ amount of things by or in the next five years,” Rahm said at Augusta National on Tuesday. “I feel like I perform better and I go with a more clear mindset to face the year if I do that exercise of closing the page on the year before and start a new one for the following year.”
Rahm went from the highs of winning the 2023 Masters only to find himself in a struggle to make the cut at last year’s event. He went on to finish in a tie for 45th before missing the U.S. Open with a foot injury and missing the cut at the PGA Championship.
A tie for seventh at the Open Championship was his saving grace in 2024.
“Not my favorite major season last year,” Rahm said. “I think last year, the state of my game was being unfairly judged based on how I played here and at the PGA compared to how I really played throughout the whole year. While I understand why, I don’t think it was the most fair state of my game. … “[I] feel like I’m playing much better golf coming into this week.”
Since joining LIV in December of 2023, Rahm has played and finished inside the top 10 — including two wins — of all 18 events he’s played on the circuit. But, as he admitted ahead of this year’s Masters, last season was a new experience for him while having to juggle both personal and professional changes.
“Last year, for me, was tough because it was the first major after joining LIV and I was also defending, so there was a lot going on that week,” Rahm said. “A lot of new things — new locker room, having the Champions Dinner. It was a lot to adjust to. I think a lot of it was more internal in my case than external.”
Rahm’s game hasn’t fallen off by any means. He joked Tuesday that he might be outside the top 100 in the Official World Golf Ranking (he’s 80th) — which doesn’t take into account LIV events — but he’s still fourth in the world in the Data Golf rankings.
“I would just say last year I was able to score really well,” Rahm said. “I never really felt 100% comfortable with my game throughout, and that’s possibly why on the bigger stages when it was difficult, like here or the PGA, I didn’t play my best golf.”
Speaking in Spanish later in his news conference, Rahm added that he’s worked with his driver — he saw too many balls going left off the tee last year – and feels sharper overall. When asked where he feels he ranks in the sport right now, Rahm chuckled.
“I would still undoubtedly consider myself a top 10 player in the world,” Rahm said. “[But] It’s hard to tell these days.”
Rahm noted that his mental state has been helped by having his family with him at last week’s LIV Doral and this week in Augusta – his wife had been unable to travel since last year’s PGA Championship after having their third child. He also said that, though he is not superstitious, in the nine appearances he’s had at the Masters, he’s made a point to play the course in the weeks leading up to the tournament seven times.
This year, he wasn’t able to. The last time that happened was 2023, when he won.
“If I win this year,” Rahm said. “Then I definitely won’t come again early.”
Source: espn.com