NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — Jon Rahm entered the 2026 PGA Championship facing tremendous pressure to perform. Although he is still widely considered one of the four best golfers on the planet, the two-time major champion has rarely been in true major title contention since moving to LIV Golf and ending the 2026 major season with a miss at the Masters.
With LIV Golf facing an uncertain financial future, Rahm needed to reaffirm his position at the top of the golf world with a strong performance at Aronimink Golf Club. By Sunday afternoon in suburban Philadelphia, he had done just that.
This week’s runner-up finish, three strokes short of Aaron Rye, was Rahm’s best finish in a major since the 2023 British Open — his last start before moving to LIV Golf.
Rahm was pleased with his efforts at Aronimink after coming off a number of majors frustrated by his stagnant progress in the sport’s four major events. All week, he dismissed pre-tournament thoughts that low scores would be prevalent at this year’s PGA, lamenting his inability to find adequate speed on the greens Sunday, but excited to be back competing in a major late Sunday.
“I played really good golf,” Rahm said. “That’s the only way I can look at it. I wish I had more speed on the greens. It seemed hard to get it into the hole and that’s why I didn’t putt in the hole anymore. Still, with Aaron (Rye)’s performance today, it would have been very difficult to catch him. … As far as I’m concerned, he’s back in the mix. It was a great week for me to shoot as well and perform as well as I did this weekend. I finished the fourth round under par or even par, but I couldn’t have asked for a few more putts in the hole, which is no easy task on the greens here.”
At Augusta National, Rahm spent the weekend trying to figure out what he could take going forward. He continued to practice just to put up numbers, explaining that the only good thing about a week like that was being able to try new methods under the pressure of a tournament. From different shot shapes to putting alignment, Rahm has seen those efforts translate from the practice range to the actual course.
His efforts over the weekend at the Masters and his decision to tweak the way he prepares for the major (though he didn’t go into details about the changes Sunday) had the intended result. He seems to have more control over the golf ball than we’ve seen in a while, and that control allows him to be more creative and take shape shots. He was able to move the ball both ways instead of relying entirely on stock fades, which he showed off Sunday.
Rahm feels his swing is in the best shape it’s been since 2021, including his dominant 2023 season, and he just needs the results to back that up.
While all stars are ultimately measured by great success, the reality for LIV Golf’s stars is that they face added pressure to perform under golf’s four biggest spotlights. For the rest of the year, they are largely invisible and out of the minds of casual golf fans. Rahm may resent the idea, but that’s the reality of his situation, and he came into this week’s PGA Championship needing to make a statement to the golf world and to himself.
“After the Masters, I’ve been playing well,” Rahm said. “But when you have the most pressure in the majors, some of the things you’re working on, those weak areas can damage your fundamentals, right? I was happy that all the things that I felt I could have done better at Augusta went right this week.”
Rahm went into this week dealing with a lot of external noise about the future of LIV Golf, but his message was consistent: let business people worry about business, and all he could do was try to be the best version of himself on the course. Asked on Saturday if he had ever thought about what a win would mean for the circuit, he stressed staying focused on himself.
“Honestly, weeks like this make me think about myself more,” Rahm said. “I’m not going to take anything on tomorrow’s match other than what I can control. If I can get through that and sit here again tomorrow, ask me the same question and I’ll answer it. But what it means for Spain in terms of their Grand Slam tally and it’s the last Grand Slam match for us, there’s going to be a lot of things that are meaningful, but a lot of that is outside of my control.”
This proved to be a smart idea, in contrast to Bryson DeChambeau, who missed the major cut for the second year in a row at Aronimink and is weighed down by the uncertainty of his and LIV Golf’s futures.
The week didn’t end with Rahm hoisting the Wanamaker Trophy, but his runner-up performance was the best we’ve seen over four days at a major tournament in years. Rahm took his hat off to Lai, who outperformed him, but left Aronimink feeling confident heading into the U.S. Open at Sinek Hills in June. There, Lahm will have another chance to add a third major title to his resume and solidify his status as one of the best players of this generation.
That’s enough pressure, and Rahm appears to have learned a valuable lesson in recent years about not putting any more pressure on outside forces.
When Rahm first moved to LIV Golf, he was uncomfortable with his sudden status as one of golf’s villains, which was clearly of his own making. His slow performance in the majors may have been because he was trying too hard to prove he didn’t make the wrong choice, or because he was one of the few stars in his prime and was burdened by the heavy expectations of a nascent league.
With the future of LIV golf in doubt, Rahm won’t fall into the same trap. He has actively distanced himself from the business side of things and is trying to put on a blindfold to focus on golf. Playing great golf has always created opportunities for Rahm, and this time was no different.
