Smylie Kaufman has revealed what really surprised him about the performance of Jon Rahm as the Spaniard finished inside the top 10 at The Open Championship.
Jon Rahm was one of the players who went to Royal Troon with a real point to prove after an underwhelming 2024 so far. LIV Golf would have hoped that the 29-year-old would prove to be the needle-mover for them as the game’s civil war continues.
However, Rahm was barely a factor at The Masters as he defended his title, while he missed the cut at the PGA Championship. He did not take part in the US Open due to a foot injury. It must also be noted that the European is still awaiting his first individual title since moving to LIV.
Unfortunately, it appeared that he was set to play himself out of contention on day one at Troon, with Rahm finishing his first round at two over. An early bogey on Friday hinted that Rahm may be one of those worrying about where the cut line would fall. But in the end, he made the weekend fairly comfortably.
How Jon Rahm really surprised Smylie Kaufman at The Open
And it seems that that caught Kaufman off-guard, as he told The Smylie Show that he was really impressed by how hard Rahm worked to ultimately finish in the top 10.
“This was a really promising week for Jon, I don’t think he had his best stuff at all on Thursday, and I couldn’t believe when, even after Friday as well, when I saw where he was on the leaderboard, near par, I was like, man, this guy really grinded his ass off to be in this position, so I commend him for the effort that he put forth this week because we’ve been critical of his major performances, and rightfully so,” he said.
A brilliant battle is brewing between the game’s recent major champions
What is fascinating is that Rahm is one of the players currently sat on two majors, with Xander Schauffele clinching his second title on Sunday. Both Bryson DeChambeau and Scottie Scheffler also have two after their respective wins earlier in the year.
So it is going to be incredibly interesting to see how those numbers change in the coming years, with DeChambeau the oldest of the quartet – with the Crushers GC captain only turning 31 in August.
Tennis fans were spoilt for years with having four of the all-time greats battling it out at the same time for the best part of two decades, and perhaps golf is now going to be treated to something similar in the next few years.
Obviously, the likes of Rory McIlroy, Ludvig Aberg and Collin Morikawa will have something to say about that. Morikawa is another who has two majors, while McIlroy has four, and Aberg will surely win one at some stage.
But there is so much talent in the game right now, and many will be expecting to see Rahm play so much better when 2025 rolls around.
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