A few weeks after winning the Masters, Jon Rahm would have wanted to have had more free time.
I wish I could say that a week off was adequate.
“The RBC Heritage was immediately after the lengthy Masters so it wasn’t. Although I would have preferred to have rested more but this is the life we have chosen to live as golfers.” Rahm said on Wednesday before the start of the Mexico Open.
Jon Rahm wished he might have capitalized on some ideal scoring circumstances during the opening rounds of the Mexico Open at Vidanta. Nevertheless, he’s still pleased with the start of his title defense.
In his opening round at Vidanta Vallarta, Rahm, who has won four times already this season on the PGA TOUR, recorded a 4-under 67.
Just four shots behind Austin Smotherman’s opening 8-under 63, he was still in the race as the morning wave was coming to an end.
Smotherman finished the final round with four consecutive birdies to tie the course record set a year earlier by Tony Finau and Brandon Wu.
Rahm started the back nine with a bogey at the number 11th par-3, then recovered with a birdie at number 14. After nine holes, he was even-par, but after the turn, he picked up the pace. The Masters champion made birdies on holes 1 and 2, then added two more circles on holes 7 and 9.
“I’m pleased with the result; it’s a nice score. There was hardly any wind during the opening 13 holes, making for the easiest conditions possible. I wish I had used it more effectively. Early on, I did make some decent swings, but I just couldn’t quite get the number and made some poor decisions off the fairway. Nevertheless, that’s how things work sometimes.” Rahm said.
Rahm’s game confidence will increase with the birdie on nine, a challenging little par-3 closing.
“Although it is not the smallest target, the likelihood of error is very high. You must hit a good shot to get it on the green and then make the putt because the wind was starting to gather speed. It felt great to complete it that way because I had been rolling it pretty well all day.” said Rahm.
Rahm put well on Thursday as the morning waves ended, he is currently ranked second in Strokes Gained: Putting.
But he was still not satisfied over the first half of his round.
The Spaniard, who had a sizable Hispanic following on Thursday, claimed that the golf course played a little differently than it did when he won a year ago and that the greens were a touch harder than they were at the beginning of 2022.
Rahm, however, finished the round on a high note by scoring a 25-foot putt birdie at the ninth par-3, his final hole of the day.
But the golf course is still in “perfect shape”, Rahm said and he is excited to take on the course once more in the second round in an effort to move up the standings and get even nearer to winning a fifth PGA TOUR championship this year.
