ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Jon Rahm has looked unstoppable this season, owning the No. 1 world ranking, winning four times, including the Masters and pocketing more than $14 million in earnings along the way.
Rahm looked like an imposter in Thursday’s opening round of the PGA Championship at Oak Hill, where he staggered to a 6-over 76 and is 11 shots out of the lead.
“The main thing on this course is hitting the fairway, if you put the ball in the fairway you can actually give yourself a lot of good chances,’’ Rahm said. “The first six holes of the day I played really good, put myself in a good spot and after that I found myself battling. I couldn’t find the fairway, and the fairways that I missed cost me bogeys.’
“The only thing I can look back on myself is the three short putts I missed on the back nine, I’m between 3 to 5 feet. If I make those putts, I shoot 3-over, which is not the worst-case scenario. If can somehow manage to [post] a low one [Friday] and find myself close to even-par going into Sunday, I think I’ll have a decent chance.’’
Rahm has made the cut in each the last 14 major championships, last failing to make the weekend at the 2019 PGA Championship at Bethpage. That’s the longest current streak.
During the streak, his scoring average is 70.20, which is the best among the 76 players with at least 25 major championship rounds played over that time.
In both of the last two PGA Championships, the player ranked No. 1 in the world at the time ended up missing the cut (Dustin Johnson in 2021 and Scottie Scheffler in 2022). Prior to 2021, the last time the No. 1 ranked player missed the cut at the PGA Championship was in 1986, when Seve Ballesteros failed to qualify for weekend play at Inverness Club.
Rahm wasn’t the only one among the top players who struggled Thursday. Reigning U.S. Open champion Matthew Fitzpatrick also shot 76, two-time PGA winner Brooks Koepka shot 72, Jordan Spieth 73, Cam Smith 72, defending champion Justin Thomas 72 and Rory McIlroy and Collin Morikawa shot 71.
“Just not at my best,’’ McIlroy said. “I’m just struggling with my swing. Yeah, it’s pretty messy out there, so just trying to make pars. I guess it was tough as well. There was a lot of crosswinds off tees, so it made it hard to hit fairways. Yeah, no, I can definitely hit it better than that.’’
Koepka, as usual, didn’t mince words about his play.
“That was the worst I’ve hit it in a long time,’’ he said. “I scrambled really well. Missed a couple putts early but scrambled really well late. I just didn’t have it.’’