Jon Rahm Says He’s Ready to Defend Masters Title With LIV Golf Prep: ‘The Pressure’s There’

The Spaniard came into last year's Masters with three PGA Tour wins in prior months but has yet to win on the Saudi-backed circuit.

Apr 8, 2024; Augusta, Georgia, USA; Jon Rahm practices chipping at the practice facility during a / Katie Goodale-USA TODAY Network

AUGUSTA, Ga. — One of the questions golf’s fractured era has borne is how tournament-tested LIV players can be for majors, coming in off their infrequent 54-hole events.

This week, for the second time, a major has an active LIV player as its defending champion. Cam Smith finished T33 at last year’s British Open after winning in 2022 (and leaving for LIV two months later), and now Jon Rahm at the Masters will try to go back-to-back.

And the Spaniard believes he’s ready after five LIV Golf starts in 2024 including last week at Doral, where he finished T4 and three shots out of a playoff.

“I understand there's less people. I understand the team format's a little different. I understand we're going shotgun and things are a little bit different to how they are in a PGA Tour event. But the pressure's there,” said Rahm, meeting the media Tuesday while wearing a black shirt adorned with LIV Golf logos including one from his Legion XIII team. 

“Going down the stretch when you're in contention is the exact same feelings. That really doesn't change. The same way it was when I went through the Spanish Open or many other events where the field might not be up to the level that it could be on a designated event, right, that doesn't really -- winning is winning, and that's what matters.

Last year, Rahm had three PGA Tour wins under his belt in the calendar year when he came to Augusta, including the designated-event Genesis Invitational (now called a signature event by the Tour). 

He said he’s still optimistic of playing in those again—“I understood my position … and I understood that it could be, what I hoped, a step towards some kind of agreement”—but that he hasn’t given much thought about what his professional life is now rather than what it was with frequent competition against the likes of Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy.

Those are the only two players above him in the Official World Golf Ranking.

“I mean, you do miss competing against certain people, right? But at the end of the day, I've had so much to focus on,” Rahm said. “The dynamic a little bit has changed, obviously. I'm a team leader, a team captain, to an extent. It's still golf.”

As he sat Tuesday, his nerves were more focused around his Spanish-themed Champions Dinner and speech, now that he’s in the exclusive club of Masters winners. 

“It is quite daunting to think about the room you're going to be in and having to stand up and talk to that group of players. Everybody who's been somebody in this game is there,” Rahm said. “So as wonderful as it is to be a part of, it's still, yeah, a little nerve-wracking for sure.