Rahm enters PGA Championship in terrific form, but will it translate into major success?

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. – Based purely on results, Jon Rahm enters this week’s PGA Championship in terrific form. Two wins, three runner-up finishes, two other top 10s and a healthy lead in the season-long points race after seven LIV Golf starts is impressive by any measure.

Last month’s clunker at Augusta National (T38) remains a mystery, but he’ll certainly tee off Thursday at Aronimink Golf Club with plenty of confidence and momentum.

“I’ve been playing – obviously besides the Masters – pretty good golf up until now,” the Legion XIII captain said.

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Form, of course, offers no guarantee of future success, but Rahm does have two major titles on his resume that can provide historical comparisons. Be forewarned, though – those might be two of the oddest run-ups to majors by any golfer in recent history.

Let’s start with his first major win at the U.S. Open in June of 2021.

During a six-tournament stretch that spring, Rahm posted top 10s at The Players, World Golf Championships-Match Play, the Masters and the PGA Championship.

He then went to the Memorial and dominated the field in the first three rounds, shooting 69, 65 and 64. He was 18 under, led by six shots and had just produced one of the tournament’s greatest single-round performances with the 8-under 64.

“Arguably the best golf I could possibly play,” he said.

But as he walked off the 18th green that Saturday, Rahm was told he had tested positive for COVID, forcing him to withdraw. His immediate reaction was a combination of disbelief and anger, as well as concern for his wife and their young child.

“The whole COVID fiasco,” he calls it now.

It was less than two weeks before the U.S. Open at his beloved Torrey Pines, and Rahm not only wasn’t able to finish off the foregone conclusion of the Memorial victory but also had to shelter at home. Not exactly the most convention way to prep for a major.

“I was home for a good five, six days without being able to do much,” he recalled.

Fortunately, his form did not disappear in Southern California, as he stayed inside the top six on the leaderboard after each of the first three rounds before shooting a final-round 67 for a one-stroke win over Louis Oosthuizen. He became the first player in 39 years to birdie the final two holes to win the U.S. Open.

“Golf-wise, I think the most comfortable I was playing was '21,” Rahm said in discussing his form. “I think '21, when it comes to swing, was one of my best years. It was really, really good. Just in general when I went out there, I didn't think I could do any wrong, and it showed with my consistency across the board in all the tournaments I played that year.”

Two years later, that consistency was replaced by confusion.

Rahm started his 2023 playing schedule by winning three of his first five starts (and finishing top 10 in the other two) while rising to world No. 1. But then his form inexplicable disappeared.

He was middle at the pack in Bay Hill, then suffered a stomach illness prior to the second round of The Players, forcing him to withdraw. Two weeks later, he was knocked out in the group stage at the Match Play, losing to Rickie Fowler 2 & 1 and Billy Horschel 5 & 4.

“2023 was odd,” Rahm said. “Even though I played fantastic in January and February, most of March I played really bad golf. I had three wins early playing incredible, and then at the Match Play and Bay Hill, even though I shot a really good first round of Bay Hill, I barely survived and made the cut, and it was a piss-poor weekend. Same with the Match Play, I didn't play good.

“In essence, for how good I'd been playing, I got to Augusta under the radar, like not really in anybody's mind.”

In fact, during his pre-tournament press conference, the line of questioning was mainly about his apparent loss of form. Rahm realized his own expectation level was higher than everybody else’s.

“It was not about the three tournaments I'd won; it was about how poorly I'd played the previous two weeks, which is not always indicative of how way things are, obviously, as it showed that week,” Rahm said. “It's just funny – you get in that press conference, and feel like, well, as good as I played this year, nobody's expects anything from me this week.”

There was nothing funny about his performance that week, of course. He opened with a 65 to share the first-round lead, stayed within striking distance of Brooks Koepka for the middle two rounds, then grabbed the lead heading into the back nine on Sunday, eventually pulling away for a four-stroke win.

It’s now three years later and Rahm is starting his second decade of playing in majors. He has the two LIV Golf wins in Hong Kong and Mexico City mixed with his Masters result; he also comes off a tie for 8th last week in Virginia. It’s his worst LIV Golf result of the year, although he did produce an albatross during his final round at Trump National Washington, D.C.

“It's been obviously a good year,” Rahm said. “Last week was a proper test of golf. Those Trump properties are usually pretty good golf courses, and with the wind switching – even though the scores were low because the greens were in absolute perfect condition and receptive and the fairways were running out so much – I thought it was a really good test.

“I didn't hit it my best, but you can learn a few things on the week prior to a major. Feeling pretty good and hope I can keep the form going.”