It’s early at Augusta National when Jon Rahm rumbles out of the clubhouse. Early for the big dogs anyway. For the contenders. Rory McIlroy is probably still getting some extra rest at home. Same with Justin Rose. Same with Scottie Scheffler.
But Rahm is not a contender any more. He hasn’t been since he joined LIV Golf for a reputed £450m payday in December 2023. He hasn’t been in the shake-up for a major since and he isn’t in the shake-up at this edition of The Masters either.
He squeaked just inside the cut-line on Friday night with a two-over total that left him ten strokes adrift of leader Justin Rose. So he’s out in the fourth group of the day, partnered with former US Ryder Cup captain, Zach Johnson, who is 49 and about to compile one of the rounds of the tournament.
Most people are still waiting for the real business of the day to begin later when Rahm emerges. He embraces his wife, who is on the lawn in front of the clubhouse and bumps fists with a couple of the members, in their green jackets, who are overseeing events on the first tee.
He looks happy and relaxed to be back at the heart of golf’s establishment. There are those who say that he has buyer’s remorse about his move to LIV, that he thought the schism between the Saudi-backed rebel tour and its PGA rival would have healed by now, and that he regrets turning his back on all that he knew.
He is certainly greeted warmly on the tee. ‘Let’s go, Rambo,’ one patron yells as loudly as he dare at a place where yelling is not encouraged. His notebook pokes out of his back pocket. It has ‘Rahmbo’ written on it in big letters.
Jon Rahm has gone from an express train to an also-ran since his defection to LIV Golf
Rahm isn’t in the shake-up in Augusta again and hasn’t been since his reputed £450m payday
There are those who say that he is experiencing buyer’s remorse about his move to LIV
Rahm, 30, smashes his drive up the first, down the middle. His short backlift and the explosive violence of his connection with the ball still draw gasps of awe. He looks pleased with his drive, which is not a look that will last long into the morning here.
He starts like the express train that he once was, the express train he was when he won The Masters here in 2023, the express train he was when he was the world No 1 a couple of years back, the express train he was when people talked about him, McIlroy and Scheffler as golf’s ‘Big Three’.
As he walks up the first, Rahm knows those days are gone. Gone for the foreseeable future. He shot an angry 75 in his first round on Thursday and startled patrons by attempting to snap his club in half when he sliced a shot into the trees on the ninth. He steadied himself on Friday with a round of 17 pars and a birdie.
But he’s among the also-rans.
Still, he sinks a 16ft putt on the first for birdie and a 10ft putt on the second for birdie and then another 10ft putt, that curled in from the edge of the green, on the third for birdie.
And, for what it was worth, he was now the leader out on the course. For a little while, he reminds us of the way he was.
After he had recorded a par on the fourth, I stand at the top of a little bank beside the fifth green to watch him try to pick up another shot. I notice a man wearing a lanyard bearing the logo of Rahm’s Legion XIII LIV team standing just in front of me.
Legion XIII has always struck me as the weirdest name for a team. It might as well be called Legion of Doom or Unlucky Legion. A golf team for the living dead. Anyway, I’m impressed that someone actually likes the LIV product enough to wear a part of it. Then I realise the man’s standing next to Rahm’s wife. He’s part of his entourage. Mystery solved.
Rahm won The Masters in 2023 and was talked about as part of golf’s ‘Big Three’
It feels sad to see the Spaniard so divorced from the drama of the fight for victory
He startled patrons by attempting to snap his club in half when he sliced a shot into the trees
The cheers and the roars were once for him but now they are echoes of a former existence
Actually, the fifth is where the wheels come off. Or, at least, where that early momentum comes to a halt. He three-putts and drops a shot to put him back to level par. He smites his drive down the hill at the par-three sixth and stares after it angrily. He picks his tee out of the dirt and throws it away with an irritable flourish.
He strides down the hill after it and an older southern lady next to me is impressed. ‘That’s a big boy,’ she says, as Rahm stomps towards the green. He pars the hole. At the seventh, his approach shot slides wide left and he stares after it reproachfully, as if he cannot believe how it has behaved. He does a lot of that these days.
The rest of his round slides into a kind of nothingness. He picks up a shot here and drops a shot there. He is still the on-course leader at the turn but he starts to be outplayed by Johnson, who delivers a blizzard of birdies while Rahm stands still.
There is another glimpse of renaissance when he birdies the 14th and the 16th to go to two under but then he drops a shot on the 17th, smashes his drive into woods on the 18th to drop another shot and finishes his round becalmed on level par.
With a fair wind, he may beat the 45th place he managed at The Masters last year. At least he made the cut, which is more than can be said for his effort at the US PGA last year but it feels sad to see him divorced from the drama of the fight for victory.
He is done before McIlroy starts his round. He has left the course before McIlroy chips in on the second for eagle to take the lead. He is done before Bryson DeChambeau birdies his first two holes as a duel with McIlroy begins.
The cheers and the roars were once for him but now they are echoes of a former existence.