Jon Rahm, out of isolation, ready to contend at the U.S. Open

Jon Rahm is confident he’s one of the favorites at the U.S. Open, despite a week spent in self-isolation

Jon Rahm is ready to move on.

He doesn’t want to focus on what happened two weeks ago at the Memorial Tournament, when his seemingly smooth ride to the title was derailed by a positive COVID-19 test. He doesn’t want to hear that the PGA Tour did anything wrong with how they handled the situation; “nonsense,” he calls suggestions that he should’ve been allowed to play alone that Sunday. He’s ready to do one thing, compete for his first major championship at the U.S. Open this week.

Out of isolation, healthy, and in a jovial mood, displaying no bitterness about what happened, Rahm is confident he has a chance at Torrey Pines. He hasn’t played a round of golf since that Saturday in Ohio when he took a six-shot lead following a 64, but the memories of all those good shots didn’t go away.

“Well, when you don’t hit a golf shot for just over a week or just about a week, it’s tough leading into a major, especially a U.S. Open,” he said on Tuesday. “I’m confident I can get in form quick enough. I still have two more days. Yeah, I still have the memory of all those great golf shots I played, right? I’m going to choose to remember that.”

Torrey Pines, site of the 121st U.S. Open, is a special place for Rahm. If Tiger’s putt in 2008 to get into a playoff is the most famous on the 18th green here, then Rahm comes a close second. In 2017, when he was a 22-year-old fresh out of Arizona State, his 60-foot, downhill left-to-right eagle putt to win the Farmers Insurance Open earned him his first PGA Tour title.

In five appearances at the Farmers, the tour’s annual stop at Torrey Pines, he’s finished outside the top-10 just once. He even proposed to his wife Kelley on the hiking trails that surround the course.

The course is long, more than 7,600 yards. The player who hits his irons the best will have a good chance to do well. Rahm is 16-under when he has an approach shot between 175-200 yards this season, second on tour to Collin Morikawa. He leads the tour in scoring average. If not for the positive test, he would be coming into this week off an impressive win at the Memorial.

Rahm’s preparation may be unconventional but shouldn’t remove him from contention

The week he spent in isolation took a toll on him. He got to return home to Arizona on a private jet but stayed away from his family. He didn’t get to see his two-month-old son. His parents, whom he hadn’t seen in more than a year, flew in from Spain. But he wasn’t there when they got to meet their grandson for the first time. He finally received his second negative test on Saturday morning and cleared the tour’s protocols.

All he did was hit a few shots on his indoor golf simulator, catch up on episodes of Rick and Morty, and, of course, try to lock in on everything that went right the first three days at the Memorial.

“Finally everything was firing on all cylinders,” he said. “Not that I’m expecting to play that perfect again, but I know that I can play at a really high level. So I’m confident, yeah.”

Rahm played like someone ready to win a major two weeks ago. Trying to compete on the game’s biggest stage with all that he’s had to deal with since then won’t be easy. But, as he made perfectly clear, that kind of form is fresh in his mind.

He may have had a victory taken away from him, but that’s now a distant memory. Rahm is ready and able to conquer Torrey Pines yet again.