Jon Rahm performed with Tiger Woods on Masters Sunday.
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ALBANY, Bahamas — Jon Rahm was in disbelief.
It was Masters Sunday and Rahm was enjoying alongside a hobbled Tiger Woods. Their morning pairing had little bearing on who would take residence the inexperienced jacket — they had been within the 10:50 a.m. tee time, simply the fifth of the day — however drew loads of consideration anyway. This was the primary actual event Woods had performed since his 2021 automobile crash and he’d made an impressed run to make the minimize. By Sunday, although, he was limping in the direction of the end line. And on the seventh gap, to Rahm’s nice shock, their twosome got put on the clock.
“We all looked at the official, like, ‘he can’t walk any faster, let’s be honest,’” he remembered on Wednesday forward of this week’s Hero World Challenge. “Like, he was already doing an amazing job trying to move up and down those hills.”
Woods is that this week’s event host within the Bahamas. He was scheduled to be a player-host, too, earlier than he withdrew on Monday with plantar fasciitis, an damage instantly associated to his ongoing restoration from the crash. Most of the questions on enjoying with Woods are prior to now tense, at least for now. But Rahm was glad to have been alongside him for certainly one of his 9 aggressive rounds in 2022.
He had some disdain for the official who’d determined to put them on the clock — “I’m not going to mention how much we had to wait on the second shot on 8,” he remembered — however his bigger level was one about Woods.
“We all joked around with the official, and then when he turned around, Tiger takes off,” he stated. “And I’m looking at my caddie, like, well, this is incredible.”
Rahm was impressed with Woods’ eagerness to maintain tempo even supposing he was struggling to put weight on his proper foot for a lot of the spherical. He used his driver as a strolling stick, propelling himself ahead. And whereas his day had begun in promising style with par at No. 1 and birdie at No. 2, he ran out of fuel down the stretch, making 5 bogeys plus a double at No. 17 en path to a closing 78. He completed forty seventh.
After the spherical, Rahm stated, Woods was hurting even worse.
“We saw the reality afterwards that the cameras don’t see,” he stated. “He puts on a bit of a show for the camera, like, he’s not going to show how much he’s really hurting. But when we finished scoring, just seeing him stand up and move around that room when there’s nobody watching, there was a difference. Especially after playing 18 holes and after sitting down when your legs cool off a little bit, it changes.”
Rahm’s spherical went much better. It was a difficult morning at Augusta however he completed with a five-birdie 69 to ascend to T27. And, to his shock, his associate was an open ebook. In the lead-up to the Masters, Rahm had joked that Woods solely ever lent his secrets and techniques to good buddy Justin Thomas. But this spherical was totally different.
“Maybe because of my comments in the past he was a lot more talkative in that round,” Rahm stated. “I don’t know if he was just trying to prove a point to me or not, but he was a little bit more talkative and he shared a lot of great stories, a lot of personal stories. I asked a little bit about golf and parenting … He was very open about it and very respectful about. It was great, it was great. It will be a round I remember for a long time.”
Despite his WD, Woods was on property on Wednesday, serving as event host. He gave a lesson within the morning to a pro-am participant. In the afternoon he cruised across the course in a golf cart, his two canines sprinting alongside him, greeting the sphere. The crash took a toll, and attempting to push by restoration has taken a toll, too. Woods stated on Tuesday that he’d had extra procedures after enjoying this season, although he declined to specify.
Clock annoyance apart, Rahm was moved by that last spherical.
“It’s really inspiring,” he stated. “How many surgical procedures has he had the place he was written off? He’s performed, he’s not enjoying once more. He’s not solely come again, he’s received tournaments, proper? It appears proper now that we is likely to be reaching that time, however I don’t put something previous him. He shocked me earlier than and he shocked lots of people earlier than. I’m hoping that he can hold enjoying, he can contend once more, particularly main championships.
“That Sunday’s going to be a fun one to remember.”
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