Jon Rahm will be looking to win his second Masters title, and his third Major Championship at Augusta National this week.
The Masters is back for its 89th edition this week, as the best golfers in the world gather at Augusta National for one of the sport’s showpiece events.
Jon Rahm won The Masters in 2023 – his last win on the PGA Tour.
The Spaniard has won two LIV events over the past 10 months, but he’s not as fancied heading into Masters week as he would have been in previous years.
That said, Jon Rahm has been backed to succeed at The Masters by some of his peers, Michael Kim included.
Whether he quite has the game right now to triumph around Augusta remains to be seen. The difficulty is that there are so many world-class players in the game now, and winning is just extremely hard.
Some of those players have not even turned professional yet!
Jon Rahm blown away by Masters debutant Jose Luis Ballester
20-year-old Arizona State University star Jose Luis Ballester will be playing his first Masters this week.
He has a dream three-ball as well, with Scottie Scheffler and Justin Thomas set to play alongside him during the first two days at Augusta.
Ballester is a superstar in the making. He won the Spanish Amateur in 2020, the European Amateur in 2023 and the US Amateur in 2024.
But what does Rahm really think about his countryman?
Well, it’s clear to see that the two-time major champ has been blown away by Ballester:
“I have played a bit with Jose Luis, he’s really close with David Puig, who I spend a lot of time with. All three of us were ASU players. It’s hard to describe his game with anything but saying he’s extremely powerful. You’ve got a player who’s got a 190mph ball speed when he rolls out of bed in the morning, and has two Olympians for parents. So he’s got all the athletic genes he needs to succeed in the game and a lot of talent.
“At the end of the day, ‘can you mentally handle it, and can you take advantage of the opportunity when you receive it?’. He’s got plenty of game, plenty of talent and plenty of distance to be in this game for a very long time. And I can’t stress this enough, he’s a wonderful man. Extremely kind and very empathetic which is really interesting to see for a 20-year-old in college. Definitely a fun guy to be around, a fun guy to play with.”
Jon Rahm gives verdict on PGA Tour battle with LIV
Rahm has made it very clear that he hopes the PGA Tour and LIV can merge together sooner rather than later, for the good of the game.
There is a real argument to be made that golf fans deserve exactly that.
It’s not good enough that we only get to see the best golfers in the world compete alongside one another four times per year.
Rahm obviously wants to face off against the very best more often as well.
In the here and now though, his sole focus will be on winning his third Major Championship this week.
And wouldn’t it be great to see Jon Rahm contend alongside Jose Luis Ballester over the weekend at The Masters.
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