Jon Rahm at the US Open on Tuesday.
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PINEHURST, NC – There are 18 holes at Pinehurst No. 2, and one on Jon Rahm's left foot.
“If I were to show you,” Rahm said Tuesday from the 124th US Open, “it's a little hole between my pinky toe and my next toe. I don't know how or what happened, but it got infected. The pain was high.”
Rahm was talking about the injury that caused him to pull out of the LIV event in Houston last week. In the first round, the LIV broadcast showed Rahm smiling after hitting a shot into the water on the par-3 7th hole. Broadcasters said he had a cut on his foot. A day later, in the second round, Rahm withdrew. Details on the injury were scarce until Rahm met with the media here Tuesday morning.
“We have been trying to investigate it because I think that in the near future it will be a wound on the skin,” he said. “Saturday morning, Saturday, I got a gun to numb me. It was supposed to last the whole round, and by my second hole I was already in pain. Infection was the worrying part. The infection is now under control, but there is still swelling and pain.”
That was evident when Rahm appeared at his press conference at Pinehurst wearing a flip-flop on his left foot. “We're trying to keep the area dry and we're trying to get that to cool down quickly,” he said. “But I can only do what I can. The human body can work that fast.”
Rahm said that he was “draining the water from the drain” he finished the LIV event last week but the pain was so intense that he could not move properly in football. “I could hurt other parts of my cycle just because of the pain. Right now this week I don't know.”
Handy intel if you're planning to drop a few bucks on the 2021 champion.
The injury marks the latest upheaval in what has been a quiet year for Rahm. In his first LIV season, he hasn't finished outside the top 10 but he hasn't fallen either. He also failed to distinguish himself when he joined the PGA Tour stars in the majors. At the Masters, tied for 45th, and the PGA Championship at Valhalla, he sat out the weekend, marking the first time he has missed a major in his last 19 majors.
Rahm, a former LIV critic who took hundreds of millions of dollars to sign with the league through 2023, also raised eyebrows that week at Valhalla with comments he made about his continued loyalty to the PGA Tour. “I'm still a member of the PGA Tour, whether I'm suspended or not,” he said. “I still want to support the PGA Tour. And I think that's an important distinction to make. I don't feel like I'm on the other side. I'm not just playing there.”
Towards the end of Rahm's press conference on Tuesday, Shane Ryan of the Golf Digest asked Rahm if he was in a “happy place” compared to the rest of his career.
Jon Rahm made a dramatic shift in gears ahead of the US Open at Pinehurst
Ryan Barath
“Yeah, I'm in a happy place,” she said. “It's not like I was playing badly, even though most of you make it sound like I was playing badly. I had a bad two weeks—”
“That's not what I meant,” Ryan said.
“No, not you,” Rahm continued. “I've been in the top 10 and had a chance to win in most of the tournaments I've played, and unfortunately Augusta and the PGA weren't my best tournaments. But yes, I am happy. I mean, it's been a good job so far. And yes, it wasn't the first half of the year, but there were many times when I didn't have a good start, but that doesn't mean you can't have a good finish.”
Rahm's 2023 was about his best start. Before signing with LIV, he started his PGA Tour season with wins at the Sentry, the American Express Championship, the Genesis Invitational and the Masters. However, since slipping into the green jacket, he has yet to return to the winner's circle and another player, Scottie Scheffler, has established himself as the incomparable alpha dog of the men's game. Rahm didn't need another reminder of Scheffler's 2024 reign, but he got one soon after taking the podium at his presser. Of the first five questions Rahm faced, two were about Scheffler, who has won five times this season.
Rahm answered questions graciously, and with details that showed he was paying attention to Scheffler's run.
“Every year or every year, there are high-quality strikers who come up,” he said. “But when you start comparing yourself to Tiger and what Tiger has done, that's when you know he's at a very special level. To win five times in a season, and win the championships he won. To win the Bay Hill, the Players, the Masters, the RBC and then the Memorial, you're essentially duplicating Tiger Woods' season. Nice to see. He was playing amazing golf and doing what he needed to do. As a competitor, it's obviously an extra motivation to see someone do so well because that's what we're all striving for. And as a golf fan, it's great to watch.”
Ideally, on big weekends, from within the ropes.
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