In any other golf tournament when the defending champion plays poorly he or she usually cannot get off the golf course and away from the host club as quickly as they can.
Not at The Masters.
The Masters has a rich tradition and something that Jon Rahm respects despite producing his poorest showing in eight Augusta appearances.
As the 87th Masters winner Rahm had to wait around to help fit an Augusta National members jacket on a new winner, and just as Scottie Scheffele had done so 12 months ago when Rahm was victorious.
However, it was a clearly very disappointed Masters defending champion having recorded scores of 73, 76, 72 and a closing 76 for a shock nine-over tally.
Jon Rahm being fitted with an Augusta National members green jacket.
Rahm’s effort was 17 shots more than last year’s 12-under, four shot victory toast.
A year on and Rahm managed just 10 birdies but also posted 12 bogeys and three very hurtful double-bogeys, including two of those over his final nine holes.
“I kind of went out there to try some things to see how it felt. Irons felt better, and off the tee felt good, to be honest”, said Rahm.
“It felt pretty good. Just a couple of bad swings in there. There’s a lot of things that contributed to me not having my best week, and one of them I think was obviously on the greens, which is not easy. Never really had the pace of the greens, and a couple too many three-putts. That’s the easiest way to fix it, but that’s, I think, very subjective to this golf course and the conditions we’re playing on”.
And when asked his emotions in returning as the defending Masters champion the now LIV golfer Rahm spoke of the rich reception he received from everyone but also revealing his clear disappointment in finishing well down the leaderboard and just inside the top-50.
“Well, it’s harder to talk about it when I’ve played this bad”, he said.
“!It’s been nice to have some receptions walking up to some tees no matter what my score was and seeing the appreciation.
“But when you don’t have your best week, it’s not that — it’s hard to have to stay now to put the jacket on somebody else and never really ever have a chance”.
