NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — You don’t have to watch Jon Rahm for long to see a familiar cycle: Something goes wrong, he throws a fit, and then he calms down and acts like a normal, approachable dude.
He went through the cycle at Aronimink Golf Club on Friday, when he swung his club in frustration, accidentally took a divot that hit a volunteer, and then called it “inexcusable.” He went through it repeatedly Saturday, when he missed putts, looked personally offended, then gathered himself and played his way up the leaderboard.
He has gone through it in his career, too.
Rahm is four-under par through three rounds of the PGA Championship, tied for second place, in prime position to capture his third major. This would also be his first major since he left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf. He was No. 1 in the world when he took the money. He has been trying to get back there ever since.
Among all the players who left for LIV, Rahm is an outlier. He was the last big name to go. He accepted an enormous offer weeks before the soft deadline for the PGA Tour’s framework agreement to merge with LIV. The Saudi Arabia-funded tour was trying to pressure the Tour into a deal; signing Rahm was a leverage play. Rahm has never said this, but he seemed to leave the PGA Tour with the expectation he could return to it soon enough.
That, obviously, has not happened. Rahm has often seemed aggrieved. He got into a long dispute with the DP World Tour and insisted he would never reach a settlement until he finally did. He chose to go to LIV. He took the risk. He got paid a preposterous amount of money. He also made it a lot harder to win majors for at least two years in his prime, and when Rahm is on the course, standing over his ball, he isn’t thinking about his bank account.
On Saturday, Rahm wore a pink shirt with the LIV logo on his left shoulder, proving that he does not actually wear his heart on his sleeve. A reporter asked Rahm Saturday if he would like to win a major for all the LIV players. Rahm didn’t even fake it.
“Honestly, in a week like this, I’m thinking more about myself,” he said.
By the time he finished answering the question, he had veered away from LIV and toward another achievement: “What it would mean for Spain as well in the Grand Slam tally and being the last leg of the Grand Slam for us.” No Spaniard has ever won the PGA Championship. I think it’s fair to say Rahm would much rather win the PGA for Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal than for Dustin Johnson.
Mostly, of course, Rahm wants to win for himself. He is an enormous talent and he knows it. He and Rory McIlroy are probably the only two players in the world whose best golf is as great as Scottie Scheffler’s. Rahm demolished the field at the 2023 Masters despite what he later called “some bad habits … that I was able to maneuver around.”
There were moments Saturday when Rahm seemed outraged by Aronimink’s greens and pin positions. But there are moments in every Rahm round when he seems outraged. He moves on quickly.
“As hard as it is to play,” he said Saturday evening, “the challenge can also be kind of fun if you do well.”
During his press conference, Rahm looked over his shoulder and marveled at the tight leaderboard. He thought back to pre-tournament predictions that old Aronimink was no match for today’s game.
“When I heard people talking about 20-under par, it made me question my ability to read a golf course,” he said. “I actually got worried. I’m like, ‘If somebody shoots 20-under, the amount of records they’re going to break this week would be unheard of.’”
It made me question my ability to read a golf course. There is a hint of an admission there: Rahm does not play nearly as many difficult layouts in competitive environments as he once did.
Emerging from this pack, on this course, will be an enormous mental challenge for everyone. For Rahm, that must be invigorating. He has had more than his fill of low-stress golf.
Only Rahm knows how he feels about the Saudis’ decision to stop funding LIV. But he has said at a recent LIV event that he remains under contract for several years and does not see any way out. But if he has really wanted out all along, then the Saudis’ withdrawal is good news for him. LIV now seems likely to fold before his contract expires. He would still have to negotiate terms of his return to the PGA Tour, but he would be free to do so.
Perhaps Rahm is encouraged by LIV’s imminent demise. Or maybe he just finally worked his way back to his old self. At the 2025 Masters, he kept saying he was close, but he seemed to know he sounded like he was kidding himself, and anyway, nobody was watching him play except when he showed up for a major.
They will be watching Sunday. This is what he missed. In so many ways, on so many levels, Jon Rahm is so close to being back.
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