Jon Rahm will play in the Farmers Insurance Open starting this Thursday. So many incentives. Emotions running high. The Basque golfer will reappear in a tournament where he’s the defending champion from last year, just after having won the CareerBuilder Challenge. Something of the essence of squaring the circle. But it doesn’t end there…
Jon also has the opportunity to become the new Number 1 in the world, although he would have to win the Farmers, and he won’t settle for less. He’ll have to fight against the two-time curse that exists in the world of golf. It’s very difficult to win the same tournament two years in a row, and also complicated to win two weeks in a row. That’s what the stats say.
It’s evident that if there’s anything Rahm has proven in his first months as a professional, it’s that records are made to be broken, something he’s been doing practically since the first time he held a golf club. Curses aside, the reality is that Jon is playing a solid game of golf and his confidence is very high, which is why it’s logical that expectations are even higher.
All eyes are on him, evidently, which will be another interesting factor to analyze this week. We’ll see how he’ll manage the tension and the soaring expectations. This week, he’ll share the spotlight with Tiger Woods. Another one of Rahm’s favorite type of challenges. “I think any golfer would like to be able to go head-to-head one Sunday on the back nine to beat Tiger”, he remarked.
And Jon and Tiger will have to wait until Saturday or even Sunday to play together, seeing as how in the first two rounds, the Spanish golfer will be paired with Brandt Snedeker and Jason Day.