In the green jacket club the champion wears the colors of the enemy. Jon Rahm sits at the official press conference prior to the first major of the season, the Augusta Masters that begins this Thursday, and on the sleeve and collar of his dark polo shirt, last year’s winner sports the LIV Golf logo, the revolutionary Saudi league for which he signed last December, and on his chest a lion, the symbol of his team (the image of Santander on the other sleeve). It is the first time that the defender of the Masters is a man from LIV, and the scene, framed in a museum of tradition such as Augusta, contains all the symbolism of these new times in which golf has been split in half.
There are 13 LIV players who are enlisting this spring in Augusta, and among them there are seven champions, such as Rahm and Sergio García. The Basque is the figurehead of the rebels, the man who changed his jacket for a heel that can amount to 500 million euros, and is at the same time the current Masters champion. Both revolution and tradition fall on his shoulders. Two paths so different that nevertheless converge in the Basque golfer. Rahm admits that his victory last year at Augusta, his second major after the 2021 US Open, and therefore the lifetime exemption to play the Masters, and a five-year permit to play the rest of the majors, influenced him. that at the end of the season he made the jump to the Saudi championship. “If he hadn’t won a major, maybe he wouldn’t have made that decision. Winning the Masters was a big step towards thinking about joining LIV. Being exempt from the big ones, knowing that you can always play the Masters and the US open until 2031, was an important factor. Obviously not being able to play some PGA Tour tournaments has not been the easiest. I love the American circuit and I hope that at some point I can play there again,” reasons the Barrika champion about his expected agreement for the creation of a world circuit.
Rahm, 29, arrives in Augusta for the eighth time with a different suit than last year. Then he stood out in April with three victories on the PGA Tour (Sentry, American Express and Genesis) and now arrives without any awards in the Saudi league although with five rankings among the 10 best in the five stops played: third in Mayakoba, eighth in Las Vegas, fifth in Jeddah, eighth in Hong Kong and fourth in Miami. He shows the same regularity in the elite that he exhibited on the American circuit in LIV (with less competition, 54 holes instead of 72 and music on the course). And in the Masters he has always made the cut since he debuted in 2017 and in that period no one shines with his statistics. Rahm returns to the starting point, to the meadow where he touched the sky, the scene of his last victory, with the challenge of closing an entire year of drought. Neither the American circuit in the rest of the previous campaign nor the LIV in these months has bitten a drink again. Because of those jokes of fate, the Masters that raised him as a PGA star also pushed him into the Saudi league. “Will that change my legacy?” he asks; “yes, it’s a little change along the way. But change can be better.”
“There is no tournament that has the essence of the Masters, its tradition. It is so special, so different…”, Rahm expands; “Last year, having won three tournaments, he was not such a favorite, because of how he had played the previous month, but this year he has played well every week,” he adds. Three rounds, yes, a model that he has not quite gotten used to: “Sometimes I forget and they have to remind me. Playing four rounds favors the best, they have more options.” Since the DP World Tour Championship last November, the Basque has not played a traditional tournament from Thursday to Sunday. In the edition that celebrates the 30th anniversary of Olazabal’s first green jacket, and the 25th of his second, the Basque also has the challenge of becoming the fourth golfer in history with a double in a row in the Masters, after Jack Nicklaus ( 1965-66), Nick Faldo (1989-90) and Tiger Woods (2001-02). On Thursday he will depart with Matt Fitzpatrick and Nick Dunlap at 10:30 (16:30 in Spain, Movistar Golf).
Life smiles at number three in the world, behind Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy. He is a millionaire star on LIV, the king of the Masters and host at the champions’ dinner, he is expecting her third child after being the father of Kepa and Eneko and even his beloved Athletic is a Cup champion.
A Biscayan experience for the dinner of champions
Assortment of Iberian ham, leg omelette, chicken croquettes, chistorra and stewed lentils (mother’s recipe) as starters. Grilled steak or turbot with pil pil to choose as a main dish. And cream and cream millefeuille for dessert. That is the menu chosen by Jon Rahm to serve this Tuesday at the champions’ dinner. A “Vizcayan experience,” says the Basque, who left the task in the hands of José Andrés for the menu, the same chef who cooked for Sergio García after his victory in 2017 and who gave the golfer some advice: “Don’t make a menu that you think will “The others are going to enjoy it, but what you want to have for dinner.”
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