You may not know it, but Jon Rahm’s team in the LIV Golf series is called Legion XIII. He makes it seem a little like he’s one of the escorts on a fatal march. Which, in terms of the divide that’s tearing golf apart, it probably is.
Anyway, it’s called Legion XIII for the entirely logical reason that Rahm’s defection to the separatist tour late last year meant the creation of a 13th LIV team, with Rahm at the helm. Thirteen. Bad luck for some.
He wasn’t unlucky in terms of the money Rahm took to sign for LIV, obviously.
Having spoken out in the past against the Saudi-backed series, he decided to accept £450m. He was probably thinking about securing the future of his family because he had not yet earned enough from the sport.
But what Rahm did also comes at a price, and as he walked to the first tee at Augusta National just before noon on a gloriously sunny day in Georgia, he had the distinct feeling he was starting to pay for it.
Jon Rahm barely managed to crack the top 50 in his Green Jacket defense
Rahm seemed lukewarm, bitter and uninspired when he returned to Augusta after joining LIV Golf.
As Rahm, 29, stared at the first fairway that dips into a valley and then rises up the hillside, he knew this was his last day as reigning Masters champion and that a return to the golden darkness of LIV Golf was looming. . Before him.
He played his last round with the air of a man who is beginning to realize that he has made a terrible mistake. He was king of the world and all of golf lay before him, waiting to be conquered. And then he sabotaged everything.
He ruined his legacy by turning his back on mainstream golf at the height of his powers and joining a circuit with a 54-hole format, where the lack of intensity appears to have left Rahm singularly unprepared for a return to the demands of more golf. competitive. .
His move to LIV has also changed the perception of him. He has damaged his image and decreased his popularity.
When he arrived at the first green yesterday, he found a half-empty grandstand.
Last year he was on top of the world but now he looks like a man who knows he made a mistake.
Smaller crowds followed the 2023 champion at Augusta National after his defection.
It didn’t feel like we were watching the reigning Masters champion. It seemed like we were watching a guy who wasted it when he was in his prime.
Those same stands are packed when Rory McIlroy plays in front of them. And Tiger Woods. And Scottie Scheffler.
But not Rahm. Not anymore. His popularity has plummeted.
“He’s been playing on tourist courses in shorts for the last few months and hasn’t been put to the test yet,” three-time Masters winner Sir Nick Faldo said on the eve of the tournament.
‘Rahm is a great player, but he’s going to have to work a little bit to step up and get the intensity right. If he’s just not smart enough because he hasn’t tested himself as much, we’ll have to wait and see.’
Faldo’s misgivings were soon confirmed. To no one’s surprise, it turns out that the highlight of Rahm’s week at Augusta was the Champions Dinner he hosted at the clubhouse Tuesday night.
He chose the menu and served beautiful Basque specialties. The rest of the week he served tripe.
Rahm shakes hands with Nick Dunlap after completing his second round and making the cut
Rahm (pictured with Greg Norman) signed a deal worth £450m at the end of 2023.
He is not a demonstrative man at the best of times, but many commented during the four days of the tournament that his demeanor was even more sad and bitter than usual.
He is not the first to have fought to win the Masters, but his defense of his title was particularly lukewarm, bitter and boring.
Most of the damage was done with a second-round four on the par 76 and he drew attention by blaming gusty conditions and hinting that he believed Augusta National should have stopped play because of the disruption the weather was causing.
But the truth is that Rahm did not shoot a single round under par all week. Even he would have found it difficult to blame the weather for all of them. On Sunday he again shot 76. The sky was blue and the day was hot and calm.
Maybe it wasn’t the conditions that caused the problems in Rahm’s game after all.
Rahm hosted the Masters Champions Dinner on Wednesday, a long-standing tradition at Augusta
He left his worst round of the week for last. He made a reasonable start, but then missed four shots in the space of four holes around the bend, letting his club fall from his hands in dismay after a particularly poor tee shot. He made double bogey at the 10th after a hit-and-run that went up the slope toward the green and then back down again.
He made double bogey on the 16th hole after leaving his tee shot short and watching it roll down the bank in front of the green and bounce into the pond.
He finished with two pars and nine overs. It was his worst performance in the Masters.
Before this year, before this title defense, his worst cumulative total in the tournament was 292. This year it was 297. And now we return to Legion XIII and its fatal march. LIV Golf’s next stop is Grange Golf Club in Adelaide at the end of the month.
Rahm was thinking about securing his family’s future when he joined LIV, presumably because he had not yet earned enough from the sport.
Rahm has already admitted that he misses some of the events he used to play on the PGA Tour, but now he is returning to a series that is sold like Golf but louder.
It doesn’t seem to fit Rahm’s spirit or personality, but now he’s stuck on it. The overwhelming feeling watching him retire as Masters champion was sadness that it had come to this. He looked and played like a diminished man. A man who has reduced himself to a salary.
Rahm finished with the same total as José María Olazábal this year. Olazábal is one of the other three Spaniards to have won the Masters and is a legend of the game. Nearly 30 years older than Rahm, he, too, is regarded with near-universal respect.
Maybe one day Rahm will learn that no amount of money can buy that.