Tranlate this title PGA Championship, best Jon Rahm of LIV era in spanish

It was on December 7, 2023, that Jon Rahm announced the news that shook the golf world: having become one of the European icons of the PGA Tour, he was leaving the premier circuit to sign with LIV Golf. With a multi-million dollar contract that at the time made him the highest-paid athlete in the world, the question arose of how he would perform, coming from a circuit with, on paper, less competition, on the world’s biggest golf stages, the ‘majors’.

Jon Rahm, results

Rahm reached the LIV after a stellar 2023 season. He had won the Masters at Augusta, finished tied for second at the British Open, and tied for tenth at the US Open. Whether due to his new situation or because the bar was set incredibly high, the truth is that his performance suffered from the start of 2024: he finished 45th at the Masters, missed his first major cut at the PGA Championship since 2019, and his physical condition let him down when a foot infection forced him to withdraw from the U.S. Open.

Since then, however, his progress in balancing his results in majors has been remarkable. Rahm, the Rahm of old, is back. He already proved it last year by fighting for a PGA Championship, where he ultimately faltered and finished eighth. He had already recorded two seventh-place finishes at the 2024 Open Championship and the 2025 U.S. Open, and now he has managed to return to the top five after his tie for second place this Sunday at Aronimink Golf Club, where the PGA Championship was held.

First Spaniard in history to finish second in every major. This feat continues to elude him. With a US Open and a British Open title already under his belt, Rahm achieved his fourth top-10 finish (tied for fourth in 2018 and tied for eighth in 2021 and 2025) and his best result at the PGA Championship. He finished tied for second, a position he also achieved at the 2023 British Open, thus securing at least one second-place finish in every major. This is no small feat: he is the first Spanish player in history to achieve such a milestone.

That’s a remarkable achievement, especially coming from a country with such legendary players. Severiano Ballesteros, the quintessential example, won three British Opens and two Masters Championships. His best result at the US Open was a third-place finish (1987), and at the PGA Championship, a fifth-place finish (1984). Txema Olazábal, the other great ‘master’, won two Masters titles and his best finishes were two third-place finishes at the British Open (outright in 1992 and tied in 2005), a fourth-place finish at the PGA Championship (tied in 2000), and two tied eighth-place finishes at the U.S. Open (1990 and 1991).

Sergio García, the man who ended the drought, was the only one to have reached the top three in all the majors: the 2017 Masters champion, he was twice runner-up at the British Open (2007 and tied in 2014), twice runner-up at the PGA Championship (1999 and tied in 2008), and once tied for third at the U.S. Open (2005). That third-place finish, therefore, was Sergio’s «worst-best result» in a major. Rahm now raises the stakes to the top two and regains his confidence to face the US Open in just one month, where it all began.

Two missed putts and a ‘cursed tournament’ that continues to haunt him. Because he’s never lost his hunger, but Rahm’s hunger is greater than ever. His words on Sunday after securing second place made that clear. «I still need time to reflect on what I could have done better this week. Right now I’m very focused on today, but yesterday I missed two putts from about five feet. That’s two wasted strokes,» Jon lamented after finishing his final round.

Rahm entered the final day two strokes behind leader Alex Smalley, tied for second place with Matti Schmid, Nick Twylor, Ludvig Aberg, and eventual champion Aaron Rai. The third round was brilliant, although Rahm’s disappointment came from a painful finish on the 18th hole: a putt of just over a meter to secure par that didn’t drop, resulting in a bogey and a painful stroke. The other missed putt Rahm mentioned had come on the par-four 3rd hole: Jon left himself a couple of meters and, with them, a clear birdie opportunity.

Despite this, he fought for the title until the very end. A start with two birdies put him in a tie for the lead, and only two things lowered expectations: two early bogeys and, above all, a stellar second half by Aaron Rai, in the tournament of his life, which closed the door not only on a solid Rahm but on all his rivals.