Rahm’s mind was elsewhere for a moment in the third round, when he reached into his pocket to grab his ballmaker and then picked up his ball on the fourth green. The problem – the marker was still in his pants. He took a one-shot penalty.
“A funny anecdote now,” he said. Emphasis on now.
When he topped Johnson’s 44-foot putt with an even longer and snakier one, the beardless Rahm celebrated with an emphatic fist pump.
Asked if the #RahmBomb stands as the most meaningful putt of his professional career, he replied: “Has to, right? It takes the cake.”
He added: “If there’s anything else I’ll take away from that week, it’s the fact that I played almost the entire weekend bogey-free.”
Almost because of the penalty. Other than that, his game was cleaner than the walls of the Art Institute.
Rahm performed respectably at this year’s majors, backdooring a T14 at the Masters, settling for a nine-way tie for eighth at the PGA Championship, finishing five shots behind J.J. Spaun at the U.S. Open in June and placing T34 at Royal Portrush last month.
While there’s a team element to LIV, the sport’s ultimate team competition will take place in September. New York fans will be jacked for the Rowdy, er, Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black from Sept. 26–28.
Rahm likely won’t qualify for Team Europe on points, given the weight of DP World Tour events in qualification. But he could give captain Luke Donald the easiest selection decision in golf history with continued strong play in August. Donald has six captain’s picks.
If the European team repeats, perhaps Rahm can celebrate by hopping on a jet and directing it 800 miles west.
“We haven’t stayed close to downtown,” Rahm said. “Given the time commitments and traffic, I haven’t been able to explore [Chicago] too much.”
Hit the Mag Mile, sprinkle some celery salt on a dog, jump aboard for an architecture cruise at sundown.
One day, Jon. We can only hope.
Formerly the golf writer for the Chicago Tribune, Teddy Greenstein now whale-hunts for DraftKings Sportsbook.
