Jon Rahm In Good Form As He Searches For Spain's First Wanamaker

Jon Rahm is looking to do something this week that’s never been done before.

A victory in the 108th PGA Championship at Aronimink would make Rahm the first Spanish golfer to win in this major’s history.

It would also complete a Spanish Grand Slam. Rahm has won the U.S. Open (2021) and Masters (2023), Sergio Garcia won the 2017 Masters, Jose Maria Olazabal won the Masters in 1994 and 1999 and the late great Seve Ballesteros won the Masters twice (1980 and 1983) and the Open Championship on three occasions (1979, 1984 and 1988).

“It does mean a lot,” Rahm said on Tuesday at Aronimink. “It's not only that, but statistically, for whatever reason, it's our poorest performance across all majors. Even Ollie and Sergio have had quite a few chances at The Open. They've had chances at the U.S. Open, and Seve, as well, and Sergio. I'm not so sure about Ollie.

“But the PGA, they did remind me last year that for whatever reason we haven't performed our best at,” he added. “I don't know why, but it is something that is in my mind obviously, having one left. It would be wonderful to close that fourth leg of the Grand Slam. Even though every major is extremely special in that way, to tie it all together with the greats of the past of Spain would be quite unique.”

Rahm’s best finish in a PGA Championship is a T8, something he’s done twice in his career including 2025 at Quail Hollow.

Rahm will be up to the challenge this week. Along with his T38 at the Masters, Rahm has made seven LIV starts this year and has finished no worse than a tie for eighth. Those other six starts have produced a fifth-place finish, two runner-up showings and two victories.

“Feeling good,” he said. “It's been obviously a good year. Last week was a proper test of golf [LIV Virgina, T8]. Those Trump properties are usually pretty good golf courses, and with the wind switching, even though the scores were low because the greens were in absolute perfect condition and receptive and the fairways were running out so much, I thought it was a really good test. I didn't hit it my best, but you can learn a few things on the week prior to a major. Feeling pretty good and hope I can keep the form going.”

When asked about how he feels about his game coming into this major compared to the ones he won in 2021 and 2023, Rahm said it’s somewhere in the middle of those two.

Golf-wise, Rahm believes 2021 was the year he felt most comfortable with his game.

“When it comes to the swing, [2021] was one of my best years,” he said. “It was really, really good. Just in general when I went out there, I didn't think I could do any wrong, and it showed with my consistency across the board in all the tournaments I played that year.”

In the 2022-2023 PGA Tour season, Rahm had three victories in his first five starts. Even still, he felt he went into the 2023 Masters a bit under the radar since he admittedly didn’t play well in the month of March.

That all changed at Augusta with a convincing four-stroke victory over Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson.

“2023 was a bit more up and down,” he said. “Especially after the Masters, I didn't play great. So, each one is different. I would say somewhere in between right now, very, very comfortable in general. But I've been playing, obviously, besides the Masters, pretty good golf up until now. It’s so hard to compare them. Each one is so different when you have all these people. But I would say somewhere in between those two. I wish I was swinging it as good as I was in '21 because that Memorial was three days where it was arguably the best golf I could possibly play.”

Though he finished runner-up twice (Mexico Open and Open Championship) following the Masters win in 2023, the rest was a mixed bag that season.

But there’s no denying he shows up for the majors. Rahm has had five top-10 finishes in the 11 majors he’s played since the 2023 Masters triumph. In his career, Rahm has been playing majors for a decade now and has recorded at least one top-10 major finish in all but three seasons.

“It's great,” he said. “It's fantastic. Just, again, I have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that it's been 10 years. It's been really good. I mean, you want to -- I want to aspire to be the best I can be, and that's led me to play golf at a really high level. The best way I can say it, it's pretty cool and pretty unique, and I hope I can keep doing it in the next decade as well.”