Jon Rahm heads into the 107th PGA Championship sitting at 82nd in the world rankings. That number doesn’t mean much to the former world No. 1 these days, having joined LIV Golf two winters ago and trading world-ranking points for the rival circuit’s opportunities.
Rahm’s LIV Golf career has been remarkably consistent – he hasn’t finished outside the top 10 in any event. This year, he’s racked up seven top-10s, though he’s still searching for his first win of the season after claiming two victories in his final three starts last year.
“I’ve been playing good all year,” Rahm said Tuesday during his pre-championship press conference at Quail Hollow. “Maybe not as great as I would like. I feel like there’s some avoidable mistakes out there. But if you keep knocking out top-10s not having your best, I think it’s still pretty good.”
The question now is whether European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald sees things the same way. Given Rahm’s impressive Ryder Cup resume across three appearances, it’s reasonable to think he already has a spot waiting on Donald’s 12-man team. Rahm, however, wasn’t ready to make that assumption.
“That’s a question for Luke,” Rahm said. “It’s his team. Hopefully I can qualify, and we don’t have to question it. I would like to think that personally I am, but it’s not up to me.”
Rahm currently sits 29th in the European Ryder Cup point standings. He’ll have the remaining three majors and any DP World Tour events he enters to climb into the top six automatic qualifiers. If he falls short, he’ll need one of Donald’s captain’s picks.
One player who won’t be sweating qualification is Rory McIlroy, who holds a commanding lead in the points race after his Masters victory a few weeks ago. Rahm was asked if he thinks about completing the career Grand Slam, something McIlroy just accomplished. Rahm has two legs so far with his Masters and U.S. Open titles.
“Of course,” Rahm answered, though he admitted it would be more on his mind if he already had three majors. For now, he’s more focused on adding to his major count rather than which specific tournaments they might be.
Rahm, a noted golf history buff, made an interesting observation about McIlroy’s career trajectory. He believes McIlroy’s collapse at the 2011 Masters – his first real chance to win a major – created a psychological hurdle that took years to overcome.
“To be honest, if that Masters in 2011 had gone his way, I think he would have achieved so much more than he has already,” Rahm said. “I think it’s been a very difficult hurdle to overcome, and you could see his emotion towards the end just because his real first chance to win a major, how it went down. I understand he won the U.S. Open shortly after by a record margin, but every time he went to Augusta, that was on his mind. It’s funny to me, when you see Rory’s game, every time I went down to Augusta National, I’m like, if there’s ever a golf course that is perfect for this man who can hit a high draw on command better than anybody else, has great hands and great touch, it’s him. He’s had so many chances. It’s just, it’s never easy. It’s very difficult.
“I would not be one bit surprised if this lifted a weight off his shoulders that could get him going on another run.”
