Shortly after winning the Masters on Sunday and concluding his press conference, Jon Rahm was whisked away to Butler Cabin where his family was waiting to toast his four-shot victory over Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson.
“It was a very enjoyable 20 minutes (before a dinner in his honor in the clubhouse) to just be with my family over there in such a special cabin just by ourselves for a little bit was very nice,” said Rahm, speaking on Wednesday during his pre-tournament press conference ahead of the RBC Heritage.
Among those to congratulate Rahm on his second major championship and 11th PGA Tour title was fellow Spanish star and winner of 22 majors in tennis, Rafael Nadal, who left a poignant voicemail. Rahm also noted he didn’t celebrate as hard as some might imagine.
“That will take part next week,” he said.
Nevertheless, Rahm said he didn’t sleep well, observing that whenever he wins, whether it is the adrenaline rush he enjoys or something else, he finds it difficult to come down from the victory buzz.
“Monday night, I slept great and still woke up tired,” he said.
Yet, Rahm is scheduled to play this week at the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, where a star-studded field in one of the PGA Tour’s designated events is set to compete for $20 million, an even larger purse than last week’s Masters. He spent an extra day in Augusta, Georgia, on Monday with his family to give his body some extra rest before he shifted into competition mode. (He was on the practice-putting green at Harbour Town by early Tuesday afternoon and played nine holes in the pro-am on Wednesday morning.)
The field counts 41 of the top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking and 29 of the top 30 players in the FedEx Cup standings are in the field, with one notable absence: Rory McIlroy. After missing the cut at the Masters, McIlroy withdrew from the tournament on Monday and is skipping his second designated event. Did Rahm, who returned to World No. 1 on Monday, consider withdrawing from the RBC Heritage after playing 30 holes on Sunday and feeling both physically and mentally exhausted?
“It did cross my mind, but I made a commitment earlier in the year, and I want to honor that commitment,” said Rahm, who is seeking his fifth Tour title of the season. No player has won five times in a season on Tour since Justin Thomas in 2016-17. “I also, talking to (wife) Kelley, I put myself in the shoes of not only the spectators, but the kids as well. If I was one of the kids, I would want to see the recent Masters champion play good or bad, just want to be there.”
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Rahm is the first reigning Masters champion to play the following week on Tour since Jordan Spieth in 2015. Rahm confirmed that the green jacket awarded to the Masters champion is with him this week, but he’s focused on donning the tartan jacket awarded to the Heritage champion on Sunday. This week marks his second start at the RBC Heritage, his first since 2020, when he finished tied for 33rd.
“I can promise you that every time I tee it up in a tournament, it’s going to be to win. It may feel better or worse, but I intend to try my hardest to win,” he said. “I still intend to hopefully do the jacket double and taking this one home.”
He added: “I feel like I’m going to be feeling better every day. So I think it could be a little challenging early on, but if I can get through the first two days, I think on the weekend I’ll feel back to normal.”
Rahm also was asked by Jimmy, a Make-A-Wish Foundation heart-transplant recipient, if he had given thought to his menu for next year’s Champions Dinner on the Tuesday of Masters week, which is hosted by the defending champion.
“I think this is the part of the week that I’ve given the most amount of thought already,” Rahm said. “I don’t know exactly. Chef Jose Andres is a really good friend of mine, so I’ll be working with him. I also want to talk to Ollie (two-time Masters champ Jose Maria Olazabal), because we’re from the same part of Spain, to see what he did in his dinner, see if I can go a different route.
“I think I have one of the appetizers down, which would be jambon, Spanish ham, the dessert, which I won’t be disclosing, and the wine. Everything in between is still up in the air. Those three things, I think I have down for now.”
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