Jon Rahm felt nostalgic Tuesday ahead of LIV Golf’s event in Las Vegas, where his Legion XIII looks to win the team event for the second consecutive week.
Phoenix Open: Jon Rahm is “emotional” missing out on TPC Scottsdale
Ahead of this week’s LIV Golf event in Las Vegas, Jon Rahm spoke about PGA Tour venues that he misses playing at.
Jack Milko has been playing golf since he was five years old. He has yet to record a hole-in-one, but he did secure an M.A. in Sports Journalism from St. Bonaventure University.
But before his team tees it up Thursday, Rahm discussed some of his favorite PGA Tour venues, namely TPC Scottsdale, the site of this week’s WM Phoenix Open.
“Driving by [TPC Scottsdale} as often as I had to and knowing that I wasn’t going to play there, it’s definitely emotional,” Rahm said.
“That’s one of the things I’m going to miss.”
Rahm resides in the Scottsdale area and attended nearby Arizona State. He has played in the WM Phoenix Open on eight occasions, finishing no worse than 16th.
Last year, Rahm finished in solo third, five strokes behind Scottie Scheffler. He even tied for fifth there in 2015, when Rahm was still an amateur in college. Funny enough, fellow LIV golfer Brooks Koepka won the WM Phoenix Open that year.
But TPC Scottsdale is not the only PGA Tour course Rahm misses.
“Palm Springs and Torrey [Pines], those weeks were hard. I’ve explained so many times how important Torrey is for me,” Rahm said.
“It was a lot harder to be at home not competing and know that those events were going on.”
He won the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in 2021, marking his first major championship victory. But Rahm also won the 2017 Farmers Insurance Open, his first win on the PGA Tour.
The Spaniard has experienced a lot of ‘firsts’ at Torrey Pines but did so again this year. For the first time as a professional, Rahm did not compete in this year’s Farmers Insurance Open. He did not have a choice either, as his association with LIV Golf has him suspended by the PGA Tour.
As for Palm Springs, California, The American Express is held there every year, and Rahm triumphed at that tournament in 2023.
“I’m hoping that in the near future, I can be back playing some of those events,” Rahm added. “I would certainly love to go back and play some of them.”
Perhaps a unified future among golf’s rival tours will exist. But then again, it may not. Who knows.
Regardless of how things play out in the years to come, Rahm has zero regrets about the decision he made in December, when he signed a deal north of $400 million to join LIV Golf.
“I’m not typically a person that’s going to regret any decisions,” Rahm said.
“I made as educated a decision as I could get with the full support of the people around me, and [I am] confident that it was the right thing for me, so no, I’m not going to regret it.”
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
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