Make way for Jon Rahm

For the second consecutive week, Jon Rahm aims to put on a jacket. He already did it at Augusta National, where he dressed in the green that accredits him as Masters champion. With hardly any time to rest, the winner of two majors dispute from today (leaves at 19:17) the RBC Heritagea tournament played at the Harbor Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island (South Carolina, USA) and in which the winner also receives an American, red and tartan in this case.

It will be the second time that Mercy I played this tournament (it premiered in 2020 finishing 33rd), traditionally placed the week after the Augusta Masters. The big stars used to take advantage of this week to not compete and recover the forces spent at Augusta National, but the situation of the RBC Heritage has changed completely this season. The PGA Tour included it in the list of ‘elevated events’, that series of tournaments that bring together the best of the circuit in exchange for having a more than remarkable prize pool. The champion in Hilton Heads last year, Jordan Spieth, pocketed 1.4 million dollars of the total of 8 million that were distributed. This week, the winner will receive a check for 3.6 million dollars and the sum of all prizes scales up to 20 kilos.

Rahm arrives in South Carolina in the midst of one of the sweetest moments of his career. It is his first tournament as Masters champion, and he will also re-release the number one in the world ranking (he celebrates it by premiering a bag of clubs in which the number one appears). Despite the fact that his first experience in Hilton Heads was not the best, the course designed by Pete Dye and Jack Nicklaus can be adapted very well to the golf that the Spaniard has been playing. The course does not have long distances but it does have very narrow fairways, so the hit from the tee will be essential during the four days of competition (Jon caught a more than outstanding 86% of fairways at Augusta National). Although the great challenge of the layout are its greens, the smallest on the circuit.

In South Carolina will be the only player who can snatch the one from Rahm on Sunday: Scottie Scheffler, hitherto unpublished on the RBC. Rory McIlroy will not compete, who was deleted from the appointment. The Northern Irishman, a great promoter of high events, curiously has skipped two of the seven that have been held in 2023. When Mercy He was asked about his decision to play, he made it clear: “I made a commitment at the beginning of the year and I want to keep it. If I were a kid, I would want to see the recent Masters winner play.”