“It’s the highest level Spanish Open I’ve ever played”

Spanish golfer Jon Rahm admitted on Wednesday that the Spanish Open, which starts this Thursday at the Club de Campo Villa de Madrid, is the “highest level” of recent years, an event he has not picked up for a week and almost in extremis after the birth of his third child.

“I’m grateful for how well everything has gone, for being able to be at home and take the little girl home and for the children to meet her. I would have been sorry to have to leave if I was still in the hospital, so thank God we were able to do all that, they are both in very good health and to get here in time at least so as not to have to come tomorrow,” he confessed to the media.

Rahm said he was “worried” about his possible absence from the National Open and was confident that he would perform well despite not picking up a golf club for a week. “It’s been a very good year, ten Top 10s out of 12, but it’s a shame that the ‘big ones’ haven’t been better. I’m very happy to get two wins in my first year and to win it individually and how well the team has done. I have much more to be happy about than anything else,” he said.

The three-time champion also pointed to the highest level of the tournament, with figures such as the American Patrick Reed, the English Tommy Fleetwood and Tyrrell Hatton and the Irish Shane Lowry, as well as the defending champion, the Frenchman Matthieu Pavon. “I think so, of those I’ve played, the highest level. It’s going to be complicated (the fourth title) because of the wind tomorrow and because we’ll see how I feel to play,” he said.

“I hope it goes well, better than this afternoon’s session on the course. I don’t expect to come here and shoot -6, -7 like other years, but I’ll see if I have a good day. I’ll see if I can get into a middle position and then attack the rest of the week a little harder. It’s a course that I like, the two times I’ve won it’s mostly because I’ve hit off the tee very well and putted well. I haven’t touched a club since Thursday, I got here at one, I didn’t expect much,” he added.

On the other hand, Rahm was asked about the relationship between LIV Golf and the other circuits and the crossfire with the DP World Tour in his desire above all to be able to continue being a Ryder Cup player. “My goal was not to be the savior of golf and I have not been part of the negotiations or discussions like other players have been,” he commented.

“I don’t know if it would be so deserved, but within the scope of golf in Spain, to be compared to that, with the impact that (Severiano Ballesteros) had or not and the impact that I may have, that is a source of pride and I hope that I can continue to live and that golf continues to grow in Spain,” he added, hoping that players will have “freedom to play” without having to “ask for permission.”

“I can come here without any problems and continue playing as a member of the European Tour, right? In the end, that’s what I hope for. It’s a delicate subject,” he said, without mentioning the fines and the dispute with the European Tour. “I don’t know much. They’ve had meetings in New York in recent weeks, of which we’ve heard very little. I imagine that I, as a player, will know very little until they announce it. I’m optimistic because of the rumours that are out there,” he said.