After a brief rest, Jon Rahm ready to defend Mexico Open title

Jon Rahm wishes he could have been able to rest a little more after his Masters triumph. But a return to the Mexico Open at Vidanta has cleared his mind and refreshed his body as he looks to defend his title this week – and try to win for the fifth time this season.

“Feeling good with the game where it’s at right now,” Rahm said Wednesday from Vidanta Vallarta. “I’ve only been able to defend the Spanish Open as a professional, so it wouldn’t be the worst thing if I could make the Mexico Open be my next defense.”

After Rahm’s four-shot victory at Augusta National he zipped over to the RBC Heritage, where he tied for 15th place. He celebrated the win the Tuesday after the Heritage – “I think everyone can imagine what it was like,” he said with a smile – before trying to charge the batteries for another PGA TOUR event.

A trip to the Mexico Open is just fine by him, however, given the resort, amenities, food and weather.

“Even though there’s competition, you’re in such a relaxing spot … there’s a lot worse places to be than this one,” Rahm said. “I’m glad to be back and I’m glad to be in good form this year.”

Rahm captured last season’s Mexico Open by one over a trio of golfers including Brandon Wu, Kurt Kitayama and Tony Finau. Finau and Wu both shot the course record in the final round – an 8-under 63 – to put the pressure on Rahm, who needed to get up-and-down from a fairway bunker to save par on the 72nd hole to win.

His triumph a year ago came after 11 months without a win – the longest such drought in his PGA TOUR career.

“To be able to come here and go wire to wire, take the lead on Thursday and never give it up and never really be trailing from that point on was big,” Rahm said. “To get it done in any Spanish-speaking country makes it a lot more special, there's always a little bit of extra pressure, extra motivation for me to want to win. So, it was big, it was big.”

Rahm admits he was playing “really quality golf” during the winless stretch he was just having trouble taking a tournament across the finish line. Among those solid results was a tie for third at The Open Championship, a third at THE NORTHERN TRUST and a second at both the TOUR Championship and Sentry Tournament of Champions.

He admits now that life got busy. Golf is golf, but their newborn son Kepa was in the midst of becoming a toddler at the same time his wife, Kelly, was pregnant again. A lot of things changed outside of the game, but how he was playing remained the same.

Although Rahm wouldn’t win again for the rest of the year, his effort so far in 2023 has been legendary. He won back-to-back starts after the calendar turned and nearly won the WM Phoenix Open before capturing The Genesis Invitational. Add in his green jacket win and that’s four in four months and an ascension to No. 1 in the world.

It’s not just the grit, lucky bounces and mental fortitude you need to win on TOUR, either. Rahm’s on-course work has been nearly the best of the best. He sits first in Strokes Gained: Total, third in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green and 17th in Strokes Gained: Putting. His scoring average of 68.82 is a nearly a half-stroke lower than Scottie Scheffler, who is second on TOUR, so far this season.

Given all he’s accomplished on the golf course to this point in the year, Rahm reassessed his goals – something he actually did prior to winning the Masters. He wanted to win multiple times this season, and Rahm did that after just two tournaments.

“You kind of need to reset because I was getting close to accomplishing everything I had set my mind to,” said Rahm. “If you have to reset or refresh your goals, it’s an amazing thing because that means you’re exceeding your expectations.”

Although Rahm does not have his green jacket with him this week in Mexico – and he’s a long way from Spain – he said the Mexican crowd has accepted him as one of their own.

“If I can be an inspiration to anyone, it’s great,” Rahm said. “If I can be an inspiration to somebody who maybe didn’t have the means to play golf early on, it’s even better.”

While Rahm came into last year’s Mexico Open on a winless drought, he’ll come into this year with even more support from the Mexican crowds. Plus, he’s winning at a more-impressive clip than he ever has before.

And despite his whirlwind April, he’s ready to go again.