This wasn’t the beginning Jon Rahm seemingly envisioned.
The 2023 Masters champion practically snapped his membership Thursday through the opening spherical of the main at Augusta Nationwide, taking his frustrations out on a driver after hitting his first shot into the comb on the par-4 ninth gap.
Moments after his preliminary swing, Rahm — already 2-over par for the day — dropped the membership and shook it off his again foot as he watched the ball sail into the woods. He then grabbed the membership and practically snapped it over his knee.
Though Rahm, 30, made par on the opening, he bogeyed thrice on the entrance 9 and shot back-to-back bogeys on the tenth and eleventh holes.
The Spaniard completed the day at a 3-over-par 75 and is tied for 63rd.
He’ll open the second spherical Friday at 10:26 a.m. with American Wyndham Clark and England’s Tommy Fleetwood.
Clark, the 2023 U.S. Open champion, is tied for 73rd at 4-over, whereas Fleetwood is tied for thirty eighth at 1-over.
Rahm is simply two years faraway from his 2023 Masters run, when he edged out Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson by 4 strokes at 12-under.
Months after his Masters win in April 2023, the two-time main winner bolted the PGA Tour for the Saudi-backed LIV Golf, netting a payday within the $500-$600 million ballpark.
Despite the fact that Rahm received two occasions on the LIV circuit in 2024, it weighed on him that he was unable to defend his 2023 PGA Tour titles (The Sentry, American Categorical and Genesis Invitational).
“I’m not going to lie; for everybody who said this would be easy, some things have been, but not being able to defend some titles that mean a lot to me hasn’t,” Rahm stated final March, in response to ESPN.
Solely two LIV golfers have received majors for the reason that league started play in 2022.
Koepka grew to become the primary LIV Golf star to win a significant in Might 2023 when he captured his third PGA Championship. Bryson DeChambeau adopted swimsuit a 12 months later with an exciting U.S. Open victory.
Englishman Justin Rose presently leads the pack on the 2025 Masters with a 7-under.
