How Jon Rahm changed his tune on Muirfield Village

Several years ago, as difficult as it is to believe, Jon Rahm wasn’t the biggest fan of Muirfield Village.

The Spaniard shot 73-77 in 2017 to miss the cut in his first appearance at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday and promptly told his caddie Adam Hayes that he didn’t know if he’d ever come back.

Hayes told his man six years ago that he would one day learn to love the course and that his game, as young and as raw as it was back then, was tailor made for it.

“He came back, didn’t he,” tournament host Jack Nicklaus quipped.

Did he ever.

Now world No. 2, Rahm returned in 2020 to defeat Ryan Palmer by three shots. He held a six-shot lead after three rounds in 2021 but had to withdraw because he tested positive for COVID prior to the start of the final round, and he tied for 10th place last year. Oh, and Rahm shot a final-round 64 at Muirfield Village in 2020 to tie for 27th place at the Workday Charity Open during a two-week stretch where the PGA TOUR played two consecutive events here because of the pandemic.

“I think it's a golf course you kind of need to learn to play a little bit,” Rahm said Tuesday in Ohio. “It gives you a lot of options off the tee on a couple of holes. Getting a couple reps helps. But it's mainly, it's a little different to what we play throughout the year. It's target golf. You put it on the fairway, put it on the proper side of the fairway to give you the best angle to the green.

“Par-3s are all difficult. You have to be really accurate with your iron play. No surprise Tiger has such a success here, right. You just need to come out and be the best. While you're doing that, it actually makes you think a little bit more than some of the golf courses we go to. So like I said, it's a fun test and I think that's why I've played well.”

Nicklaus has his own theory on why Rahm has had such great success at his golf course. We’re already looking at a man entering the week with four PGA TOUR victories this year, including the Masters and someone who now loves Muirfield Village. One could also argue that he should be a two-time winner here. Patrick Cantlay topped Collin Morikawa to win that Sunday two years ago after both shot 71 in the final round, meaning Rahm would’ve had to have shot 78 or higher to have lost.

“I think that more and more players on the TOUR are playing left-to-right now than they were for a long time,” Nicklaus said. “A lot of guys are trying to control the ball a lot more and so obviously it's easier to control the ball left-to-right than it is right-to-left. Particularly when you start to get into a fast golf course, you really don't want the ball doing this, tumbling over; you want the ball tucked under a little bit so it hits and doesn't run very far.

“And Jon Rahm is a strong hitter, he hits it a long way, plays that way. You’ve got a lot of other guys that will play a bit that way that are good players. There are still going to be some that play right-to-left, but that's their natural game and what they play. I just think when you get a hard, fast golf course, you’ve really got to control the ball more and when you get a guy – a situation like that, a guy like Rahm … conditions would probably eliminate a fair number of the players because … they can't play the fast, hard stuff.”

Rahm, 28, also loves this week because he’s a student of a game, a self-proclaimed golf nerd. Nicklaus was mostly done with his playing career by the time Rahm was born, so Rahm only knows about Nicklaus’ statistics from watching documentaries and reading history books.

Although it happened eight years before he was born, Rahm learned early about Nicklaus’ victory at the 1986 Masters, more because fellow Spaniard Seve Ballesteros made two late bogeys on Sunday to finish two shots behind the Golden Bear.

“It wasn't the best memory for Spain, but Jack did something amazing then,” Rahm said. “That shot on 16 and the putt on 17 are two things that you remember.”

Now Rahm remembers what happens on the 18th hole after the champion wins the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday – Nicklaus is there to greet the winner and congratulate him on a job well done.

“Any time Jack puts his name into something, it's going to have certain significance,” Rahm said. “When you're paired with a challenging golf course, it makes it even better.

“I think there's something special around here. Obviously the course has changed a little bit and recently it's changed quite a bit. But it still has the same essence, right, that to call yourself a Memorial champion and have that handshake with Jack on 18 is pretty unique. Just little things that make some tournaments better than others. Those little traditions, like that one on 18 is one of those things. It's very special.”