Jon Rahm believes that the golfing calendar should include more links events as he sets his sights on winning The Open Championship for the first time in his career this week.
Rahm is one of the favourites to win at Royal Birkdale. The Spaniard has finished inside the top 10 in three of his last five starts at The Open.
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Of course, the winner of The Open is always incredibly difficult to predict. So much of what happens over the course of the tournament is down to the weather, the draw, and the bounces a player gets.
Rahm, for example, did incredibly well to finish tied for seventh at Royal Troon in 2024 given that he seemingly ended up on the tougher side of the draw over the first two days.
Jon Rahm calls for more links golf on the calendar
There is an argument that one of the factors that makes links golf so special is that it is so sparingly played at the elite level throughout the year. It is extremely rare for any tournaments to visit a links course outside of the United Kingdom.
And someone who would like to see that change is Rahm, with the two-time major winner telling an event hosted by Callaway that he would like to see more tournaments on the links.
“Yes, we got The Open, the Scottish Open and sometimes the Irish Open. Not always. I feel like two and a half or three events is not enough for where golf started,” he said.
“It could only be in summer, obviously, and we have other events going on but if we could have a few more events in links I think it would be better for everybody.”
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Rahm recently said winning the Claret Jug would be the highest honour in the game. And it is not difficult to see why given that Seve Ballesteros is the only other Spaniard to win the title.
Of course, Rahm would also move to within a PGA Championship victory of completing the Career Grand Slam with a win at Royal Birkdale this week.
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He insisted that it is difficult to put into words just how meaningful such a victory would be.
“This is always an emotional answer for me. I have been very fortunate to win majors but to join Seve on that one and to get to three, which would put me second in the Spanish golfers list as far as majors go, to get one step closer to a Grand Slam which is a lot. But any time as far as I am concerned that I can join Seve on anything he did in golf is incredible,” he said.
“To draw my name on the Claret Jug would be inspirational.”
Rahm played extremely well after getting off to an awful start at the Scottish Open last week. He will hope that the opening round just saw him dusting off the cobwebs and he is now ready to make a charge that few other players can.
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