Brandel Chamblee has claimed that he has never seen what has happened to Jon Rahm’s swing since he jumped to LIV Golf in any other player.
Rahm is probably getting used to being under some pressure at the majors. Ever since he joined LIV in 2023, the Spaniard has seen all of his performances at the four biggest events of the year put under the microscope.
He has had real success on LIV. Rahm has won the individual titles at the end of both of his full seasons with the league. He has also won two events already this season.
But for those who do not watch LIV Golf , it cannot be ignored that Rahm has not finished in a top five in a major since The Open Championship back in 2023.
It is certainly difficult to make the case that Rahm has got any better since leaving the PGA Tour .
In fact, speaking on McGinley and Chamblee at the PGA Championship, Brandel Chamblee suggested that the 31-year-old’s swing has got considerably worse over the last three years.
“I miss him. I miss watching him play his best golf. I do miss listening to him talk, because he is a historian of the game. You talked last night about how knowledgeable he was when he won the Irish Open, or who had won it. But there’s nuanced differences in his game. He’s not the same player he was when he left,” he said.
“You say he’s great? I don’t know. I’m going to wait and see in a moment. He’s always had a propensity to swing far too fast, and in particular, in the transition, it’s even more so now.
“You can easily go and watch every shot he hit at The Masters. And when you watch it, all I thought was, he reminded me of somebody standing on the range, and somebody behind him was, ‘let’s see how far you can hit a golf ball. No, no, let’s see how far you can hit one. The next one, the next one’.
“I’ve never seen a quality player like him so change the tempo of his golf swing, and it was just a blur. It looked like Zorro. Just all out, every single golf swing, and I thought, where’s the nuance? Where’s the beauty? You know, where’s the jaw dropping talent that we used to see from him?”
Rahm was understandably asked about his form heading into the second major of the year. While he remains a dominant force on LIV, he had a hugely disappointing week at The Masters, finishing outside the top 30.
Interestingly, he suggested that he feels that he is swinging the club better than around the time he won his second major title, at Augusta National in 2023.
“If it goes golf-wise, I think the most comfortable I was playing was ’21. I think ’21, when it comes to swing, was one of my best years. It was really, really good. Just in general when I went out there, I didn’t think I could do any wrong, and it showed with my consistency across the board in all the tournaments I played that year,” he said.
“’23 was a bit more up and down. Especially after The Masters, I didn’t play great.
“So each one is different. I would say somewhere in between right now, very, very comfortable in general. But I’ve been playing, obviously, besides The Masters, pretty good golf up until now.”
Rahm remains second in the Data Golf rankings, which some, including Chamblee, would argue are much more accurate at judging the best players in the world.
That would suggest that he is going to be one of the names to keep a close eye on this week at Aronimink.
It would certainly silence a lot of his doubters if he was able to clinch a third major title in the coming days.
