‘Unfairly judged’ Jon Rahm still struggling to find major form at Masters

Eighteen months ago, Jon Rahm left for LIV Golf as the defending Masters champion and undoubted top-three player in the world.

The Spaniard was fresh off a four-win season and appeared to be on an unstoppable ascension to lord over the sport alongside Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy. Rahm’s move to LIV Golf has made it hard to properly gauge where he now stands in the professional golf hierarchy. He is a generational talent who is still the fourth-ranked golfer in the world, per Data Golf’s rankings. But due to LIV Golf’s inability to earn Official World Golf Ranking points, Rahm sits at No. 80 in the OWGR, a fact he lightly mocked during his pre-tournament press conference at the 2025 Masters this week.

The truth is that the only proper way to judge Rahm — and whether or not his game remains in the elite shape it was when he left for LIV — is at the majors. Last year, Rahm flopped in his title defense at Augusta National before missing the cut at the PGA Championship. He couldn’t tee it up at the U.S. Open due to a toe injury and carded a T7 finish at The Open, although he was never truly a threat to win.

“I don’t know how to say anything else,” Rahm said on Tuesday when asked to assess his 2025 so far. “Consistency is something that I’ve always prided myself on. I think last year the state of my game was being unfairly judged based on how I played here and at the PGA compared to how I really played throughout the whole year.

“While I understand why, I don’t think it was the most fair state of my game. It’s something — top 10 statistics is something I’ve always prided myself on. Right before joining LIV, I think I was still close to 50 percent worldwide in all my starts finishing top 10, which is something I pride myself on, and to keep it going that way is not easy. Now, I would say I would definitely trade a few of those — take a few of them away and hopefully add a couple more Ws. That would be nice because not in all of them I had a chance to win, and at the end of the day, that’s a goal.”

Multiple things can be true. Golf aficionados and fans still view Rahm as one of the best players in the world. But given how poorly he played at majors in 2024, which was rarely the case before his defection, it’s fair to wonder how the move to LIV is impacting his preparation for the majors and his competitive drive outside of them. Rahm has finished in the top 10 of every LIV event he has played in. That’s better than finishing outside the top 10 but it’s unclear how that accomplishment should be viewed compared to how the likes of McIlroy, Scheffler and other PGA Tour stars are judged based on their performance in Tour events.

The easiest way for Rahm to remove himself from the world of the golf unknown would be to do what Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka have done since joining LIV — contend and win major championships.

Rahm’s first crack at erasing the narrative around him arrived this week at Augusta National. Donning his Legion XIII attire, Rahm marched to the first tee on Thursday with the same steely look he had when stalking majors as a perennial contender from 2019-23.

But the game didn’t follow.

Rahm made five bogeys in a sloppy opening-round 75 that put him at three over par and 10 shots back of first-round leader Justin Rose.

Rahm’s game was better in the second round, but he was unable to put himself in enough scoring positions and managed to shoot just a one-under 71. That 71 put him on the right side of the cut line but still 10 shots back of Rose.

Rahm will have a weekend tee time at Augusta National. But he’ll once again go out early and needs to go low to get into the championship mix. The high-pressure cauldron that Rahm used to routinely inhabit at major championships will be reserved for Rose, DeChambeau, McIlroy, Scheffler and other contenders.

“Not good,” Rahm said of his game after Friday’s round. “I mean, I grinded and got a lot of good up-and-downs to be able to break par and hopefully make the cut. But just a lot of bad swings and then a lot of mistakes when I was in a good position. I must say, yesterday and today, there was quite a few iron swings that I thought were good that just — whether we got the wind wrong or just other things that happen at Augusta that didn’t end up either on the green or close enough for it to be a birdie chance, and then after that, I just feel like I hit a lot of good putts and nothing went in.

“Just little things like that that at major championships can set you back quite a bit. I have a pretty big mountain to climb to have a chance tomorrow or to have a chance come Sunday.”

Rahm said he’ll take the positives out of having a weekend tee time and hopes to post something low on moving day to vault into the thick of the hunt.

Fair or not, the four majors are going to be the barometer by which Rahm is judged. It’s the same standard McIlroy, Scheffler, DeChambeau and Koepka are held to. Play well and the narrative of Jon Rahm, major killer, reemerges. But continue to scuffle on golf’s biggest stages and the questions will only get louder.

Rahm had a chance to prove that his 2024 major season was an outlier and not his new normal. Instead, he puttered and billowed his way around Augusta National — a course he brought to its knees two years ago — to barely make the cut.

He’s once again a non-factor at a major championship in his post-defection career. Perhaps Rahm’s struggles in majors are a product of his new reality. Perhaps what works for DeChambeau with LIV doesn’t work for him. Golfers are particular creatures. Change is often unwelcome. Or perhaps it’s merely a dip in play.

Regardless, the questions will continue.

Only Rahm knows the answer. The rest of us are just left to wonder when we’ll see the Jon Rahm of old again.