What happened to Masters champion Jon Rahm? Exploring the reasons behind the golfer's recent losses
Jon Rahm won the Masters but hasn't won a single event since then. Following his win and ascension to world number one, many felt as if he was about to take over the sport this year. However, he hasn't been able to replicate the success, which is not entirely his fault.
Rahm won the Masters with relative ease but hasn't seen that same level of comfort since. Here are his finishes after the tournament:
- RBC Heritage, T15 (-11)
- Mexico Open, 2 (-21)
- PGA Championship,T50 (+7)
- Memorial Tournament, T16 (Even)
- US Open, T10 (-3)
- Travelers Championship, CUT (-2)
He didn't participate in last weekend's Rocket Mortgage Classic. He had a couple good tournaments directly following the Masters. He was excellent at the Mexico Open and would have won if Tony Finau wasn't in rare form.
Other than that, it's been an uncharacteristic go for Rahm. He was pretty bad at the PGA Championship and only marginally decent at the US Open.
The world number two golfer has barely been able to fend off Rory McIlroy as Scottie Scheffler's lead atop the table grows.
Missing the cut at the Travelers Championship, albeit with a solid -2 score, is stunning. Rahm had an argument for being the best in the world, but missing a cut hurts his case tremendously.
Why Jon Rahm may be struggling
There's no real reason that Jon Rahm is struggling other than the fact that golf is a difficult sport. Not a single golfer has earned wins in consecutive tournaments. Most winners don't even find themselves in the top five on their next appearance.
It's a tough sport filled with great players, so it's easy to see why even Rahm hasn't seen as much success lately as expected. It's also entirely possible, though not at all confirmed, that he could be dealing with the fallout from the LIV Golf merger.
He did say he felt like the Ryder Cup shouldn't ignore LIV players, but he also admitted that he felt betrayed by the move via CNN:
“I think it gets to a point where you want to have faith in management, and I want to have faith that this is the best thing for all of us, but it’s clear that that’s not the consensus. I think the general feeling is that a lot of people feel a bit of betrayal from management.”
He continued:
“I understand why they had to keep it so secret. It’s just not easy as a player that’s been involved, like many others, to wake up one day and see this bombshell. That’s why we’re all in a bit of a state of limbo because we don’t know what’s going on and how much is finalized and how much they can talk about, either.”
Jon Rahm isn't in the field for this weekend's John Deere Classic, so he might benefit from a bit of time off. It's likely that he will soon return to form and put this small poor streak in the rearview mirror.