AUGUSTA, Ga. — It is golf’s most carefully guarded closed-door event, but on Tuesday afternoon at the Masters, Jon Rahm propped open a window.
Hours before Rory McIlroy made his grand arrival to the Masters Champions Dinner, the 2023 green-jacket winner took a step back in time to his own Champions Dinner, sharing a never-before-told story from inside the room of golf legends.
According to Rahm, the story begins on Champions Dinner Tuesday morning, when Rahm realized his celebratory meal would fall on a special anniversary: Seve Ballesteros’ birthday. Ballesteros was Rahm’s hero, and also the first Spanish-born player to win the Masters. As Rahm and de facto master of ceremonies Ben Crenshaw delivered their opening remarks to the group, they made mention of the Ballesteros anniversary, and of Rahm’s role as a countryman at the club dinner.
And then, Rahm said, something special happened.
“Still probably one of the coolest experiences of my life,” he said. “All of those greats had spent time with Seve, starting with [Jose Maria Olazabal] telling stories about Ryder Cups and previous matches with him.”
It wasn’t long before each of the legends in the room — from Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus to Tiger Woods and Mark O’Meara — began pitching stories of their own.
“For somebody that’s researched as much as possible, those are stories I’ve never heard and maybe they’ve never told anybody,” Rahm said. “It was quite unique to see a full room of grown men, in essence, acting like kids again because of the love they have for this game and the stories of Seve.”
Rahm said the best story arrived from one of Ballesteros’ longtime Ryder Cup teammates, Bernhard Langer. Langer had competed for Ballesteros at the 1997 Ryder Cup at Valderrama, where Ballesteros paired Langer for the week with Colin Montgomerie. In one of their opening matches, the two golfers found themselves in a drag-out alternate-shot brawl with the most formidable pairing on the American side, Tiger Woods and Mark O’Meara. On one hole, Montgomerie’s tee shot went right into the trees, sending Langer scampering after it — which is where Rahm picked up the story.
“Whoever knows Valderrama, those trees are no joke, and back then the rough was four or five inches, which adds onto it,” Rahm said. “Bernhard was trying to pitch it out.”
“Here comes Seve, drifts in there, gets off and tells him, Bernhard, have you considered hitting a 2-iron over the trees and you slice it 50 yards onto the green? Only thing Seve could think about. Bernhard kind of waves him off, chips out, hit it on the green, make for par. Americans three-putt.”
End of story? Nope, far from it.
“Then Bernhard said, I don’t know who we were playing against, but that was great,” Rahm said, winding up for the punchline. “Right directly in front of him was Tiger and Mark O’Meara, and both of them are going That was against us!!! Maybe slightly different language than what was used there.”
As Rahm reshared the story on Tuesday, he could hardly suppress his own laughter. It was a funny story, but it was rendered funnier by a fact Rahm could not fathom: That Langer’s career was long enough to make beating Tiger Woods at the Ryder Cup forgettable.
“The fact that it was right in front of Tiger Woods and he told the whole story, it was probably one of the best moments I’ve ever witnessed golf-wise,” he said. “It was incredible. To be live and witness that, it has nothing to do with the story, but the fact it was them sitting in front. Who forgets playing Tiger and beating him because they three-putted? I mean, come on.”
“I know he’s played a lot of golf, but that doesn’t seem like something you would forget.”
