Club foot reason for Jon Rahm’s TOUR-winning short swing

SANDWICH, England – U.S. Open champion Jon Rahm has revealed his distinctive shorter swing is a direct result of being born with a club foot.

Rahm, the favorite for this week’s Open Championship at Royal St George's, explained how the restriction of movement in his right ankle has necessitated the swing he has now used to win six times on the PGA TOUR.

“I have the swing I have, and I've gotten more mobile and stronger in some parts of my swing so that might slightly change it, but I have certain unique parts and certain unique, let's say, physical limitations that let me swing the way I swing, and I don't deviate from that,” Rahm explained.

“I was born with a club foot on my right leg, which means for anybody that's sensitive about that, my right leg up to the ankle was straight, my foot was 90 degrees turned inside and basically upside down.

“So when I was born… they pretty much broke every bone in the ankle and I was casted within 20 minutes of being born from the knee down. I think every week I had to go back to the hospital to get recasted, so from knee down my leg didn't grow at the same rate.”

Rahm also revealed his right leg is a centimeter and a half shorter than his left leg and he’s spent the majority of his golf life adapting his game around his own unique swing rather than searching for something others might term more clinical.

“What I mean by limitations is I didn't take a full swing because my right ankle doesn't have the mobility or stability to take it. So I learned at a very young age that I'm going to be more efficient at creating power and be consistent from a short swing. If I take a full to parallel, yeah, it might create more speed, but I have no stability,” he added.

After claiming his first major championship last month at Torrey Pines, Rahm enters The Open in red hot form – 44 under in his last 12 worldwide rounds. All signs point to the Spaniard having a great chance to become just the seventh player to win both Open’s in the same year.

Only Bobby Jones (twice – 1926, 1930), Gene Sarazen (1932), Ben Hogan (1953), Lee Trevino (1971), Tom Watson (1982) and Tiger Woods (2000) have managed the incredible feat.

Rahm’s previous best Open Championship finish is a tie for 11th in 2019 but with a seventh-place finish at last week’s Scottish Open he continues to trend towards doing much better. And with the major drought over, the shackles are off.

“It would be pretty incredible to win both Opens in one year. It would be amazing. I did have a sense of relief after winning the first major. I felt like for the better part of five years, all I heard is major, major, major just because I was playing good golf, as if it was easy to win a major championship,” Rahm said.

“But the fact that you are expected to win one means nothing… I still come with the same level of excitement obviously and willingness to win... It would be pretty incredible to be able to win The Open. Nobody (from Spain) after Seve has been able to do it, so to give Spain that, that would be pretty unique, as well.”