[Photo: Augusta National]
After shooting a two-under 70 on Friday to make the cut on the number following an opening-round 78, former Masters winner Jon Rahm was asked if LIV prepares him to play in this tournament.
“Same as any other golf tournament in the world, yeah,” the 2023 champ said.
He may have changed his opinion on that matter two days later, as the Spaniard finished with a one-over total following rounds of 73 and 68 on the weekend at Augusta National. His T-38 finish marks his second-worst in this golf tournament in 10 tries, the worst being his T-45 the year after his victory. Both of those results have come post-LIV signing in February of 2024.
Rahm, who hit less than 60 per cent of his greens this week, did not specifically point to the LIV schedule or any of its venues as the reason for his down week. But he did point out that he seemed underprepared for the firm, fast conditions.
“Definitely some things I’m going to change going forward,” Rahm said. “Preparation-wise and what to do. But it’s hard to say how much I learned because I don’t think we’ve ever seen a Master’s at this firm, and I don’t know how long it will be until we do again. Both off the tee and on the greens.”
The two-time major champion then got one more thing off his chest.
“Have you ever seen, looking down the property, how yellow the patron areas and how brown and purple parts of the greens and fairways are?” he said. “It will be a long time until we see it like this. Definitely have some things in mind for future editions where it gets to this level.”
What things, Rahm, did not expand on? All he added was that he learned exactly what not to do when Augusta plays the way it did this week.
